It’s been about two years since hurricanes Helene and Milton dealt a one-two blow to the Gulf Coast, and the black eye from that bout can still be seen today on North Shore Road on Longboat Key.

 

Visitors or residents who frequent Greer “Beer Can” Island typically park along North Shore Road, a narrow residential street that provides street parking at the base of the northern-most public beach access on the island. As potential beachgoers scan for a spot, they’d be hard pressed to miss a one-story, ground level condo building. Sandbags pin a black and silver tarp to the storm-damaged roof, but much of the tarp has dislodged from the anchors, and the tarp sways in the wind as it drapes to the floor. A flier for a mold remediation company is propped against one of the windows, but nobody is there to collect it. The parking lot is empty, and so are the units. Work has not begun on the property, and a building permit application for repairs has since expired. Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Director Allen Parsons said questions planning staff had about the application, which was submitted on the last day of 2025, went unanswered, and the permit application was recently closed as a result. On the Manatee County Property Appraiser website, the property is classified as an uninhabitable condominium. Parsons said he believes the property has not been in code compliance, but the department does not issue fines when a building permit is open.

The condo building at 380 North Shore Road has roof damage and has been declared unsafe and unfit for habitation by the town’s building official.

 

On Sept. 28, the town’s building official sent a notice to property owners the building had been declared unsafe and unfit, with a 30-day deadline for new permits to be applied for.

“Its open to the elements,” Parsons said. “In the back areas, the roof has been exposed to let water in, and that can lead to the structure to be something that is not necessarily safe and will decline over time.”

Delays and disagreements

Gary Sheppard and Ellen Scotti-Belli are longtime owners of one of the nine units at 380 North Shore Road. They inherited the property from Scotti-Belli’s mother-in-law.

“That property is special and beautiful,” Scotti-Belli said. “If there is a way to repair it, there is nobody more inclined to do so than me and Gary.”

Scotti-Belli said there have been a host of reasons for a lack of construction activity on the condo complex including delays in insurance reimbursements and the struggles of navigating bureaucracy.

“Nobody knows what to do after a hurricane. There are so many rules and regulations between state, federal, local. So we spent the first year trying to sort through the information,” Scotti-Belli said. “One of the insurance companies paid back fairly. The other one we had to get an attorney. We received those funds about six months ago. With that holdup we really couldn’t do anything.”

Now, the delay centers around a disagreement among property owners on the best path forward.

“There is a board currently that is pushing for a rebuild and they’re trying every angle to make that happen,” Scotti-Belli said. “If this was just my own home I would take a different approach.”

Requests for comment by the board president for this story were declined.

The FEMA 50% rule comes into play for the condos. That means that, if estimated repair costs for a structure exceed 50% of their appraised market value, repairs or renovations need to bring the property into full compliance with current flood regulations.

In the aftermath of the storms, the town did repair estimates of damaged properties. The estimate for the building at 380 North Shore Road was $2.9 million.

Longboat Key Building Official Patti Fige wrote in a 2025 letter to property owners the most significant requirements to achieve FEMA flood compliance are to elevate the building 10 feet above the base flood elevation.

Parsons said the town uses a cost estimator software called Xactimate for repair estimates, but property owners are required to provide an estimate of their own before permits are issued.

The condo association provided quote that was under the 50% threshold with a total repair cost of $974,718.

“We provide a substantial damage estimate. It is not a final accounting of costs,” Parsons said. “It provides the property owner an opportunity to have their own cost estimate provided, so if their cost estimates repair is less than 50% of the value, then they have the opportunity to make those repairs.”

The permit application for those repairs stalled as questions from town staff went unanswered, and the application was closed.

A decision now looms with an Oct. 28 deadline set.

“What we hope to see is some direction,” Parsons said. “We hope this compels them to submit an application within the next 30 days for repairs or secure a building permit for demolition. If not, it can lead to demolition. That’s the path that it can head down.”

Elevated structures are a common sight on North Shore Road. If the condo building on North Shore Road is demolished and rebuilt instead of repaired, another raised structure could be on the horizon.

“It would be great if we could rebuild it and rebuild it high,” Scotti-Belli said. “It was built for a different time.”