Barrier island
Siesta Key
Most of the island is unincorporated County. The north end is City. The sand, the trucks, and the season do not care which portal you used.
Two governments on one island
People say “Siesta Key” as if it were one building department. It is not. Most of the island files with Sarasota County. The north end sits in the City of Sarasota. The portals do not share files. The tree rules do not match. The contractor registration does not match.
If your surveyor, your architect, and your builder are not looking at the same jurisdiction on day one, you will buy a month of redraw.
The island is a logistics problem with a view
Quartz sand, tight lots, tourist season, and houses that have to take weather seriously. A crane, a dumpster, and a lumber package on Midnight Pass or Beach Road are not a mainland schedule pasted onto Gulf light. Neighbors, HOAs, and short-term rental buildings will notice a sloppy week.
Kitchen and bath work on the Key is often a Gulf & Key Remodel job. A new house, a lifted house, or a serious addition is Construction. We will tell you which door before you spend a season in the wrong one.
Flood and the beach
Siesta lots routinely sit in AE or VE, and landward of VE you still hit Coastal A / LiMWA, where wave action is not a mainland AE problem. New and substantially improved houses have to meet County (or City) flood elevation — lowest occupiable floor, mechanicals, and, in VE, pile foundations with the bottom of the lowest horizontal member at the required elevation.
Work seaward of the state's Coastal Construction Control Line can need FDEP as well as the local building permit. Those are not the same application.
Relevant work
Private Project Review
Planning work in Siesta Key?
Tell us the property and the intent. We will tell you whether Gulf & Key Construction is the right door — and which government you are actually filing with.