District Meeting - November 10, 2016

This was a rather short but not uneventful meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Two appraisals were received by the Board for the approximately 21 acre parcel of land that is to used for construction of a wastewater treatment plant. One appraisal valued the land at $2.53 million and the other at $2.24 million, or somewhere around $105,000 an acre.

After reviewing these appraisals I came to the conclusion that the comparable properties used by both appraisers did not appear to be comparable at all. Comparables included property sold in extreme north county in and around the cities of Sarasota and Bradenton. I reasoned, how are these sales comparable to an as yet undeveloped part of south county? I also questioned why the two April 2016 sales of west villages land for the new dog park (fronting along River Rd.) and for the K-8 school site (fronting on West Villages Pkwy) were NOT used as comparable sales in these two appraisals pointing out to the Board that the average sales price of these two recent and within 1 mile of the subject property parcels were for about $35,000 an acre LESS THAN the price being justified in these appraisals. It was also pointed out to the board that there was no adjustment to property value based upon the 200 foot tall cell phone tower near the northeast corner of the property. I went so far as to read a written statement into the meeting record voicing these concerns and recommending that the Board reject both appraisals.

Although I felt much better have complained about these short comings, the Board decided in a 2-1 vote (yes, 2 Supervisors were not in attendance) that my concerns were baseless and the appraisals were both accepted. The one NAY vote came from Mr. Rossman, who is the only Supervisor on the board elected by the residents of the district in a general election. As we all know, the other 4 members of the Board are all elected (read appointed) by the master developer based upon the acreage they own. Congratulations to Mr. Rossman for standing up and being counted on this obviously developer biased and favored appraisal report acceptance vote. Thank you Bob!

From the local rumor mill:

• Atlanta Braves spring training facility deal is very close to a decision. Fingers remain crossed and hopes are high.
• Has anyone else heard that a COSTCO store might be built somewhere in West Villages. I just heard this a few days ago from a fairly knowledgeable source but there were no details about when or where.