Village D - "Main Street Village"

We all heard about the Publix shopping center coming soon to a neighborhood near us soon. In fact, we've been "hearing" about this since around 2009 for those of us who have lived in the West Villages for that long. At long last, it looks like this may be a reality by perhaps early to mid-2019 (my best guess; not the developers date).

Again, for those of us that have been around since near the beginning we recall the great recession of 2008 and the impact it had on the country and us locally. The original master developer, Fourth Quarter Properties from Georgia, went belly up as did the developer for Gran Paradiso (Sam Rogers). Now that there is a new master developer for West Villages (Mattamy Homes from Canada) and a resurgence in the real estate market, things are looking up. One left over eye sore from the great recession is about 160 acres located at the northwest corner of West Villages Parkway and US 41. Fourth Quarter tried to "hold on" to this land when it sold the remainder of the district to Mattamy Homes about 3 years ago; but the land remains encumbered by perhaps more than $40 million in debt and back taxes.....an amount much greater than even the current market value of the land. Hence, this original location for a Publix shopping center remains vacant and is now surrounded by new development (Gran Paradiso, Renaissance and the "new" proposed Village D shopping center across the street at the southwest corner of the intersection.

Now comes Village D - Main Street Village. The proposed development just cleared the North Port Planning and Zoning review board in August and will soon appear on the North Port City Commission agenda for a final approval. I believe there is one more public comment meeting that must be held before things are finalized; but my guess is ground will be broken on this project before the end of this year.

You can read/review the full Village D Plan of Development <HERE>.

Board Meeting, June 29, 2017

Pretty dry meeting today with no public comment. Major agenda items were related to the planned refinancing of Unit 1 and Unit 3 bond debt to take advantage of lower interest rates and to obtain additional funds (cash out refi) for planned improvements. For both bonds, the refinancing will NOT change the original term of the bonds, and it will NOT change the individual property owner assessment amounts for bond debt service.

Refinancing of Unit 1 bond debt is expected to raise between $3.4 and $3.8 M in new construction funds. No discussion was made of specific items; but, the current Plan of Improvement calls for construction of Predo St. as a new north/south road through Village C. There has been design work done for signalizing the US41 and West Villages Pkwy intersection, and there will be some road way realignment done near the new spring training facility on West Villages Pkwy. Longer term, there is still an obligation of the district to acquire land and build a police/fire/EMS station in the district, AND to equip that station with a police car, fire truck, and ambulance.

Refinancing of Unit 3 bond debt is expected to raise around $900k. The district engineer announced at today's meeting that the Southwest Florida Water Management District grant for construction of a reclaimed water line from near Rockley Blvd. and US. 41 to the existing retention pond in Gran Paradiso was approved. Design of the new line is in progress so construction should start on this before the end of the year. A representative from Lenar stated that they were about to spend $170k for a new agricultural well and piping to bring more irrigation water into the retention pond. The cost of both of these improvements should just about expend the funds received from this refinancing.

A public meeting was scheduled for July 27 at 11 am at City Hall in North Port to make public notice of the intent to refinance the Unit 1 bond debt. A similar meeting was planned for August 10th.

June 2017, Land Owner's Annual Meeting

This annual ritual meeting was held at North Port City Hall on June 8, 2017. Surprise....the two supervisor seats up for re-election were won by the two incumbents. They were the only candidates for each seat and the master developer has over 6,000 votes to cast for whomever they want to be elected. You and I only have one vote - per household - for our tiny 1/4 acre of land ownership. All above board and legal. Read the state statute if you don't believe me.

Now next year (2018) will be different. One of the five seats on the WVID board is held by someone elected by the registered voters residing in the district at a general election. That seat has been held by Bob Rossman from IslandWalk and his four year term will be expiring next year in June. Bob has told me that although he has enjoyed his time on the board and that is has been a wonderful experience, he will not be a candidate for re-election in 2018.

SO....any civic minded person interested in being a part of the future development of the West Villages should start considering running for this seat in 2018.

Contact the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office for more information. If you do not plan to solicit or accept campaign contributions then the registration process and paperwork is very minimal and the filing fee is only a few bucks. The ONLY requirement is that you be a US Citizen. One does not even need to live in or even be a registered voter in the district to qualify!!! Heck, one of my kids from North Carolina or New Jersey could run for this seat.

When can we expect to have more than one of the five supervisor seats filled by a resident (registered voter) elected person? Probably another 4 or 5 years at least. The state statute governing STD boards has a sliding scale that matches the percent of "urban development" within a district to the number of approved, publicly elected supervisors. We got our first seat when there were more than 500 registered voters living within the WVID boundaries. That was easy.

The next trigger is 25% of urban development with the district. When Bob was elected, we were at around 3% "urban development". The district Engineer estimated today that we are only around 12 to 13% "urban development" now. Search this blog for other "GENERAL ELECTION" labeled posts to get the full story on how this system works.