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.

Board Meeting, June 8, 2017 (and 2 previous meetings)

Once again I've been tardy in posting to this blog. There have now been 3 board meetings since my last post including today's. Most of the discussion and decisions made in those 3 meetings have been related to the future Atlanta Braves spring training stadium. Suffice to say that things are moving along very quickly with attention being paid to hiring of attorneys, engineers, bond consultants, and other specialty staff for moving forward with and overseeing construction of the stadium. All parties (county, city, district, and Braves) have pretty much agreed to terms and conditions for the project. County, city, and district funding is firmed up and the only funding piece still missing is $20 million from the Florida spring training retention fund. The application for this final grant money is just about complete and will be submitted to the State very shortly. All parties are confident that this funding will be available and awarded for this project.

The construction manager has assured everyone that with a September, 2017 project start date the stadium can and will be completed by January 2019 in time for the spring training season to begin. Stadium design is being done by an architect selected by the Braves. WVID will be the responsible entity for managing and disbursing project funds during construction, and for overseeing day-to-day lease management to the Braves for the next 30 years. Upon completion, the stadium property will be dedicated to Sarasota County.

After today's meeting, Marty Black told me that the master developer has decided to fund the cost of construction for a 2 (expandable to 4) million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant. About 14 acres of land behind the radio tower at US 41 and River Rd. were purchase by the disctric earlier this year to the plant location. Thank you Mattamy Homes and partners for this most welcome decision! The preliminary design for the plant is being reviewed by the state. Final design should not take long and with no public funding being involved, the selection of a contractor to build the plant should happen very quickly. There is no urgent need for the plant; but, with the rapid pace of development, having a plant sooner rather than later is desirable. At present, all wastewater from WVID is being pumped by buried pipe along US 41 to the North Port City treatment plant. The capacity of this force main was never intended to support all of West Villages and we are slowing approaching this lines design capacity.

Also at today's meeting the budget for next fiscal year (Oct 1, 2017 to Sep 30, 2018) was approved by the board. There will be little change in WVID assessments to property owners from last years tax amounts. Again, good news for us tax payers. One question I had was concerning expenses for the new infrastructure planned for 2018; some related to the Braves stadium and other items related to the development of Village D (the 640 acre planned mixed use retail, commercial, residential development along the south side of US 41 from IslandWalk down to West Villages Parkway). The district engineer assured everyone that the remaining $8.1 million in available construction bond funds would be adequate for the tasks. Mr. Black stated that the distinct will be refinancing the Unit One bond fund sometime this summer which is expected to result in an additional $3.5 to 4 million of funds for Unit One capital improvements (can you say "cash out refi"). Planned infrastructure projects for 2017-2018 include:

• signalizing the US 41 and West Villages Parkway intersection
• realignment and some new roadway construction at the stadium intersection
• irrigation water line from Sarasota National to Gran Paradiso
• new 2-lane road (Paredo St.) from US 41 to West Villages Pky in Village D
• intersection improvements for US 41 and the new Paredo St.
• land acquisition and construction of a police/fire/EMS substation in the district (to INCLUDE purchase of police car, fire truck, ambulance, and related equipment)
• purchase and dedication to North Port or a 15 acre park parcel

Residents from Gran Paradiso have asked at two of these last three meetings for the board to reconsider its decision to NOT pursue an investigation of the cost and feasibility of constructing a pedestrian overpass to provide residents from Villages A and C with access to the proposed Village D shopping area on the south side of US 41. With the decision to site the Braves new stadium also on the south side of US 41, they feel that such an overpass is essential to provide safe, non-vehicular access to these amenities. There was no comment from the board on this request.

A question was asked about the 167 acres at the northwest corner of US 41 and West Villages Parkway regarding back taxes and district assessments being unpaid. This land is "left over" from the initial master developer's (Fourth Quarter Properties) failed ownership of the West Villages. Because of the unpaid tax burden, this land was excluded from Mattamy Homes' purchase of the West Villages. The board and board counsel stated that forcing a sale of the land for back taxes and assessments would not be an economical venture for the district costing it many dollars in legal fees with little hope of seeing any money. In an after meeting conversation I had with district counsel I was told that the district is not a true "taxing authority" and that it does not have the authority to force such a sale. A request would have to come from the Unit 2 bond holders to authorize the district to begin foreclosure proceedings on behalf of the bond holders. I believe that a taxing authority such as the city or county does have the right to move forward with seizing the property for non-payment of taxes after a 7 year period of non payment. If that is the case, then such an escheatment action could be initiated next year on or after October 1st. I intend to pursue this matter with the Sarasota County Tax Collectors office to find out what actions may be possible.

Board Meeting, March 9th, 2017

The WVID Board of Supervisors voted to accept the Braves Term Sheet and have signed a letter of intent to move forward with the project. They follow the City of North Port and Board of County Commissioners in doing so. This completes the local governments support for moving forward and the attendant funding sources from these governments. The last big hurdle will be in the State Legislature. There has been talk for many months now about doing away with the $20 million state grant for sports field developments. Everyone is now holding their breath to see what happens to the application for this money as the last piece of the funding puzzle for the Braves new spring training complex.

In response to public questions, the Board confirmed that the approximately 80 acres for the stadium complex would be donated by the master developer at no expense to tax payers. This means a $8 million plus donation for the value of that land. Thank you very much developers!!! Another question about the source of approximately $7 million in planned expenses for road and infrastructure improvements in and around the planned complex resulted in a less clear identification of that source of funds. The final answer was that the board isn't sure yet how that would be funded. Could be Unit 1 funds, or the new Unit 5 funds (see below), or more donated funding by the master developer or some combination of these.

The board approved the solicitation of an "At Risk" Project manager for the proposed complex. The intent is to get this entity in place as early as possible in the project so that they may actively participate in the the planning and permitting as well as to oversee the construction.

The board also began the process of creating a new Unit of Development for the sports complex project. It will be Unit 5.

Everything associated with this project will be on a super fast track as the current plan is for the Braves to take possession January 2019 for the spring training season. That is just 21 short months from now for a project that is still in an early design and permitting stage. For those who have any experience at all in projects of this size and complexity, you should be impressed by such a very, very aggressive schedule to be achieved.

When I was a project manager I'd always say (in private, never to a client) that a project has three major components: COST, SCHEDULE, and QUALITY........which two do you want? To achieve the January 2019 date I am fearfully that either COST or QUALITY may be compromised. The Braves I am sure will insist on QUALITY (rightfully so). I wonder what last minute COST burden the taxpayers may be asked to endure?

March 9th District Meeting Should Be Interesting

 I received the notification email yesterday from the District Manager's office confirming the next meeting of the WVID Board of Supervisors for 11 am on Thursday, March 9th in North Port City Hall. The agenda items for this meeting include discussions of the "soft gate" gated community entrance procedures, and the "Trim Sheet" for the proposed Atlanta Braves spring training facility. This same "Trim Sheet" must be reviewed and approved by Sarasota County, City of North Port, and WVID before the project can move forward. The full agenda and meeting book for this meeting can be found at http://westvillagesid.org/documents/.

It looks like IslandWalk will be the only "hard gated" community in West Villages for many years to come. Gran Paradiso and the three new Mattamy Homes subdivisions being created now are all to be "soft gated" communities. A hard gated community has roads and gate house features that where built with developer money and not using public debt financing. Soft gated communities on the other hand have roads and gate house features that were constructed using public debt money. Therefore, the gated entry and main roads in soft gated communities must be open to the public so anyone can enter these communities without restriction.

Next week is also early voting for the North Port City Commissioner Seat 4 Special Primary Election with the actual election held on March 14th. Those of us living within the West Villages and who are registered voters should have received their sample ballots by now.

I would like to take this opportunity to endorse Jill Luke for this election and recommend her to you as the next City Commissioner for District 4. Jill is a small business owner in North Port and for the 6 years that I've known her, she has been actively involved in city civic affairs and with the Chamber of Commerce. These special primaries are usually poorly attended by voters and in many cases just a few votes can swing an election one way or the other. Hence my endorsement and request that you take the time to get out and vote in this election. I believe Jill will be a strong supporter of the West Villages and a stabilizing influence on the City Commission.

Special District Meeting - February 2, 2017

This special meeting of the WVID Board of Supervisors only had 3 agenda items; 2 of them related to the ongoing, exclusive negotiations with the Atlanta Braves for moving their spring training and other operations to Sarasota County. The other item was the appointment of a new supervisor to fill the unexpired term of a supervisor that resigned last month. Both the outgoing and incoming persons were more or less selected by the master planner (its totally legal; one acre, one vote and they own an overwhelming amount of the acreage in the district).

Resolved: the district will enter into a formal pre-development financing agreement with the Braves whereby the Braves agree to reimburse the district for all expenses related to the preliminary siting, design and permitting of the proposed new stadium complex.

Resolved: Marty Black will be the district's negotiating representative for ongoing talks between the Braves, county, city, state, and district.

Before adjourning the special meeting, Mr. Black gave some additional information about the planned stadium project:

• It will include a multi-story hotel. Number of rooms not disclosed but it will be a commercial enterprise, separate from the "public" portion of the stadium complex.
• It will include 40,000 square feet of Braves sports medicine and rehabilitation services. Also a private, separate from the public portion of the stadium, business, It will employ 70 people and the Braves will use this facility for their major and minor league players from around the world.
• There will be paved, paid parking for about 700 vehicles, with adjacent, grass field parking for another 1,000 or so vehicles.
• In addition to the West Villages Parkway access to the new stadium, current plans also call for another access road that connects to US 41 as well. No mention of the alignment for that road.
• Funding for this project will come from multiple sources. Mr. Black stressed that there would be no increases to existing property owners WVID taxes. Just like any other new village added to the West Villages, only the residents (Braves team) will be responsible for repayment of any public debt for this project. That debt will be retired by using the annual lease payments paid by the Braves for using the complex (30 year lease I believe?).

Mr. Black also briefly talked about the Village D Retail/Commercial plans. He expects another 6 months or so for plan and permit approvals, and for construction to start sometime in the Fall of 2017. He said over 50% of the currently planned retail space is already taken by letters of intent from interested businesses.

A contingent from Gran Pardiso brought up the need for a pedestrian/bicyle/electric vehicle overpass to connect Villages A and B to the new Village D retail/commercial area. Mr. Black again stated that this was a village developer (Lennar or Mattemy) issue and not a district responsibility.

Braves are Coming to West Villages

Just announced late yesterday afternoon (1/17/17) that the team is now in final and exclusive negotiations with the county, city, and master developer for West Villages. Assuming no one scores an error on this play, the deal should be done by Spring 2017 and the Braves want to begin using the new facility in Spring 2019. According to news releases from the Sarasota Herald Tribune and the West Villages marketing office, the proposed location of the new stadium has changed considerably. It is no longer fronting on the south side of US 41 just east of the SCF campus. Now the stadium is proposed to be along the east side of  West Villages Parkway, south of US 41 and the SCF campus.

District Meeting - January 12, 2017

The meeting began with public comment by residents from Gran Paradiso with questions as whether or not their community was hard gated or soft gated? As this question had been submitted by email in advance of the meeting, District counsel had the answer. Gran Paradisio is a soft gated community since public bond funds were used to construct the main entry feature and the primary road network within the community. Residents also asked about consideration of a pedestrian overpass to connect their subdivision to the new Village D retail/commercial space being planned on the south side of US41 from Gran Paradiso. Answer was, no real answer was given. WVID is not the deciding entity for this feature. It is the master developers decision to make. I would disagree with Mr. Black on this point. WVID exists to provide the necessary infrastructure that interconnects the many villages that will exist in our district. That interconnection is not just limited to roadways. It should include walkways and in this case, perhaps, a pedestrian overpass, as essential elements of a successful "village" development that has a major highway running through the middle of it.

Mr. Black stated that negotiations between the Atlanta Braves and WVID/City/County representatives were still ongoing and that no decision had been made by the Braves as to where they would located their new Spring Training facility. There may have been a wink and a nod that went with that announcement; but officially, there is no decision.

The district engineer reported that the preliminary design of the wastewater treatment plant was 50 percent complete and that they were on schedule for submitting the design to the City and State for review. The engineer also recommended that the board approve a $4.5 million contract for the construction of new infrastructure for the Village B, Oasis subdivision. This would be paid from bond money specifically obtained for Village B development and repayment of that bond money would be the responsibility of future residents owning homes within Village B.

The district engineer began a discussion with the board about the status of irrigation water for the district. Historically, there have been supply issues with amounts of reclaimed water from the Englewood Water District. In some recent years a shortage of irrigation water has reached critical levels that threatened the survival of expensive landscaping in our communities. A number of topics related to irrigation water were discussed, including:

• Status of grant request to State of Florida to fund the 1 mile extension of an existing reclaimed water main that now terminates near the entrance to the Plantation and Taylor Ranch School. Application has been made. Chances of approval are good. Grant would be awarded in October 2017 and could provide 250,000 gallons per day (gpd). Engineer asked that the board consider spending money now to complete the design and permitting necessary to extend that water main to West Villages' storage pond in anticipation of receiving the grant money to do so. Otherwise, it could take 6 to 9 month after the award to complete such work and construct the extension. Estimated cost was $75,000. Board to consider doing this at the next meeting.
• An existing agricultural well on Gran Paradiso was approved for residential irrigation use in October of last year.at a rate of 200,000 gpd; but this water has a high salt content and must be mixed with reclaimed water to make the salinity of the water used for irrigation tolerable to plants and grass.
• District engineer continues to negotiate with Englewood Water District to ensure that WVID is receiving the 600,000 gpd that was promised. Historically this supply has been highly variable and no where near that amount.

Of course, once our wastewater treatment plant is built and operating, WVID will have its own source of reclaimed water to use for irrigation. Unfortunately, irrigation water supply will be a real issue for the district for another 4 or 5 years until that plant is built.

Village D, Neighborhood Meeting, 01/10/17

Tuesday, January 10, 2017. Main Street Ranch Land Partners hosted a neighborhood meeting to present the preliminary Village Pattern Plan for the new Village D retail, commercial, residential future development. Comments from the public were received after the presentation and will be "considered" as possible revisions to the plan which is next scheduled to be presented to the North Port City Planning Board sometime in March 2017. Retail/commercial development will be done along the south side of US 41 with single family and multi-family residential development in the southern portion of this 620 acre subdivision area. Multifamily structures could run to 4 stories with a proposed maximum height limit of 120 feet. Some of the multi-family units adjacent to the retail commercial area may be built as mixed use structures with the retail/commercial space on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floors.

There were a number of constructive comments and concerns voiced by the public during this meeting. Most noteworthy were:

• Would these residential subdivisions be hard gated or soft gated? No direct answer was given.
• Residents from Gran Pardiso asked that the planners consider a pedestrian/golf cart friendly overpass or tunnel that would provide access from the north side of US 41 to the south side where the new retail/commercial development is proposed. The planners were again non-committal in there responses.
• Would the new entrances to this subdivision be regulated by new traffic lights or round-abouts? Planners stated that since the IslandWalk/Gran Paradiso intersection had just been approved for a traffic light, it was their understanding that all other intersections would also get traffic lights.
• When questioned about the timing of traffic light installation the planners said FLDOT was the decider of that question and stated that typically the FDOT wants to see traffic count data to justify a light. Many in the audience thought that installation of traffic lights should be done as part of the initial development.
• I asked about what consideration had been made for irrigation water to support this new subdivision since we are already experiencing difficulty in getting enough water now for just the two existing subdivisions (IslandWalk and Gran Paradiso). Planners response was that they were well aware of these irrigation water issues and that adequate planning was being done.

Percent Urban Development Map - January 2014

The district is required by its controlling State Statue to prepare this map, and to update the map "at least" every 5 years or sooner. The "or sooner" is language in the Statute and for a fast growing development like ours, the percentage of urban development is increasing rapidly. Just compare the January 2014 map with what is going on today (December 2016) to see just how much has changed. You may click on the map image shown to see a larger, printable version of the map. The bottom line is that in January 2014 the then District Engineer who prepared this map stated in his report, "The evaluation establishes that approximately 2.42% of the overall area of the West Village Improvement
District (WVID) meets the criteria for designation as an Urban Area under Florida Statute 189.4051."

So, why is this important? Special Taxing Districts like ours are overseen by a Board of Supervisors which are "elected" initially by the land owners in an annual "election" held every June using a one vote per acre (or part of an acre) basis. So, on day one, the district general developer owned all of the land...there were no home owners yet. So, all 12,000 or so of their "votes" were cast for the folks they wanted to see in charge of managing the initial $130 million or so of public bond money debt being used to develop infrastructure for the new district. That was way back in 2005 when the district was first organized.

I have extracted the supporting narrative and methodology used for preparing this map from the REGULAR BOARD MEETING, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 meeting book for you to view and print as a PDF document.

The West Villages Improvement District is chartered under Chapter 189, Florida Statute by special act of the State Legislature. The state department responsible for oversight of Special Taxing Districts like ours has prepared a simple to ready handbook that summarizes the provisions of the statute in easy to read language.

Over time, many new homes have been built, and each new home owner family now can have one "vote" in the land owner's annual election of new Supervisors, and for every 5 or so of these new families, the general developers get one less vote. (each lot is less than 1/4 acre so 5 homes would occupy about one acre). So, say you wanted John Doe to be elected as a supervisor at the next election to better represent your interests as a home owner. Well, you could cast your 1 vote for him at that annual land owner's election in June, and the general developers would cast there 10,000 or so votes (1 vote per acre owned) for whoever they wanted to be the next supervisor. Who do you think will win that "elections"?

The Statue does provide for the eventual take over of the Board of Supervisors by the actual home owner's. The initial seat on the board for a local, popularly elected Supervisor comes fairly early in the process when there are more than 500 registered voters living in homes in the district. That happened back in late 2013 and in a special version of the annual Land Owners Meeting in June 2014, Mr. Bob Rossman (IslandWalk home owner) was elected by popular vote of the registered home owners in the district.

Now, the other four seats on the board are tied by the Statute to the percentage of urban development within the district. Hence, the importance of this map and also the how and when that the map is updated. The schedule of popularly elected seats for the Board of Supervisors is spelled out in the State Statute as:

District Meeting - December 8, 2016

Very short 30 minute meeting. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has approved a daily annual average withdrawal of 2,000 gallons per day for an agricultural well owend by one of the general developer land partners for use to replenish irrigation water used for the district. As we all know this is the dry season and to make things worse, the Englewood Water district has not been able to supply the amount of treated wastewater promised during this dry period. The added water from this well can make the difference between live and dead grass and plants in the district. The board approved a contract with the land partners to receive this well water and to pay the same rate for that water as they would be paying to the Englewood Water District.

The board also tied up all the loose legal ends surrounding the Unit 4, $13 million bond issue. That money is now in the bank and will be used to pay for infrastructure improvements to the new Matemy homes subdivisions going in along the West Villages Parkway between US 41 and River Rd. The future home owners in those new subdivisions will be responsible for paying back this bond money over the next 30 years.

The next scheduled meeting is set for January 12, 2017. Recall that a few months ago the WVID board decided to move their regular meetings back to City Council Chambers at North Port City Hall, and to begin meeting on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month at 11 am.

Before the meeting adjourned, I asked the board for clarification on the methodology being used to determine the "percent of urban development" in the district. This an important issue because the State Statute that governs our district allows for more and more of the board Supervisors to be elected by the public at a general election as the percentage of urban development increases over time within the district. I was told that the Urban Development Map prepared back in February, 2014 was the one still being used.

Please see my next post for a more in depth discussion of this important issue.

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.

District Meeting - September 27, 2016

Just mostly normal district business at this short meeting. No mention of any improvements to River Rd., No mention of traffic light (round-about) at IW/GP entrance on US 41. No mention of the Atlanta Braves spring training facility.

Supervisors voted to approve the District Engineer (Santec) to perform a preliminary design for a new 2 million gallon per day (MGD) waste water treatment plant to be located on land just South of the cell phone tower on the south side of US 41 near River Rd. Plant is anticipated to be needed by 2020 to safely accommodate the amount of waste water to be generated by homes in the district. The plant is to be designed as expandable to 4 MGD at some future point in time as the number of new homes and businesses in the district increases. The cost for design and land acquisition is included in the current capital budet and existing bond debt money will be used for this expense. However, the cost of building the plant will most likely be part of some new, future bond issue. I would estimate $35 to $50 million in initial construction cost.The City of North Port will take over and operate the plant once it has been built. The cost of day to day operations should be included in resident's normal water and sewer billing.

The district engineer was instructed to investigate a possible extension of an existing reclaimed waste water pipeline on US 41 near Sarasota National. A one mile extension of this line would make this Sarasota County reclaimed water available for use in GP and IW. Cost sharing with Sarasota County, SWFMD, and other interested entities might make the cost of this expansion affordable by the district. There has been a long term, historic shortage of reclaimed water from the Englewood wastewater suppliers that has resulted in past watering restrictions. With the growth of GP and the new Mattemy homes development taking place farther south on US 41 at the West Villages Parkway intersection, the availability of more reclaimed water could be extremely beneficial.

District staff was also instructed to investigate the possibility and terms of a possible bond debt refinance for units of development 1 and 3. It seems that interest rates are low now and this would be a good time to look into the possibility. Supervisors are also looking for the possibility or raising additional capital from a refinancing of the debt (read cash back mortgage).

A new landscape maintenance contractor was chosen to replace Brightview Landscaping (formerly Valley Crest). The Brightview contract expires on September 30th and competitive bids were solicited over the summer for landscape maintenance work along US 41 and West Villages Parkway. Yellowstone Landscape of Bunnell, FL was selected as the lowest responsive bidder to begin work on October 1, 2016. Yellowstone is a commercial landscape company doing work in Florida and Georgia with a proven track record of public right of way maintenance.

District Rezoning Public Meetings in July 2016

Every resident in West Villages should have received a post card this week from the city Planning Division giving notice of a series of public meetings planned for July 2016. For those who didn't receive this notice, here is a summary of the meetings:

July 7, 9 am. Planning and Zoning Advisory Board. Review the revised West Villages Index Map and the proposed rezoning ordinances, take public comment, and make recommendation to the City Commissioners.

July26, 10 am. Regular City Commission meeting for the first reading of the revised West Villages Index Map and the rezoning ordinances and public comment (Ordinances 2016-16 , -17 , and -22).

September 13, 10 am, Regular City Commission meeting where the revised West Villages Index Map and vacant land rezoning designation would be adopted (Ordinances 2016-16 and -17).

September 27, 10 am. Regular City Commission meeting where the old 126 ac Sarasota Memorial Hospital property will be rezoned to allow it to become part of the proposed new Village D village center project (Ordinance 2016-22).

All meetings are to be held in the City Commission Chambers, 2nd floor of City Hall.

Revised West Village Index Map

Although not widely discussed at any of the district meetings I've attended, it appears that district's index map has been revised. I was at the city planning office Wednesday looking for a better graphic of the Village D preliminary pattern plan (with no luck; nothing on file) when I stumbled across this revised index map for the future development of the West Villages district. Some time late in July, there is either  public meeting to discuss this revised map, or maybe it was an approval from the City Council. Not sure which.

In the right margin of this blog you can see the original, 2006 Index Map for West Villages. The new one does make a number of changes. Seems that the new master developer is putting their concept for the future direction of West Villages into play.

Does not appear to be a radical departure from the original plan; but WOW, look at all those new traffic lights that could be popping up on US 41!!!

Please note that this is a PROPOSED revision and the picture at left is a cut and paste representation of the actual full and complete map. It is shown here to give readers a flavor of what the proposed changes are to the West Villages Index Map.

West Villages Town Center Neighborhood Meeting

The master developer for West Villages held a required neighborhood meeting on June 14, 2016 in the new West Villages Improvement District offices located in the old South County Resource Center off West Villages Parkway. There was an overflow crowed of interested folks for this meeting and the small meeting room only held about 50 or so with many more folks standing in the hall way outside the room, and some even leaving because of the crowd. The developer even ran a second meeting to accommodate those who had been out in the hall way.

This meeting satisfied a regulatory requirement to notify and solicit comments from those persons residing within 1/4 mile of the perimeter of the proposed project. So, only a small hand full of such persons were expected for the meeting. However, the notification letter received widespread re-distribution within the two adjacent subdivisions. Hence, the overflow crowd.

Marty Black represented the developer at the meeting to make the preliminary development pattern plan for Village D (town center) known to the public. There were no handouts at the meeting, so this cell phone photo of the plan is all there is to show right now.

Not a lot of detail and the legend can't be read from this photo. The two pink areas along US 41 between IslandWalk and West Villages Parkway are for retail and commercial space. The orange area along the Parkway is for multistory, multifamily development (condos and apartments). The two green shade areas at the south end of this overall 626 acre project are to be single family residential subdivisions.

According to Mr. Black, this broad brush land use plan is the first step in a long approval process. Once the City of North Port approves this concept, the developer will then begin more detailed site planning. There is a public meeting for this next step planned for sometime in late July in North Port.

Those of us who have been following events in the West Villages will recall that just a short 6 months or so ago there was a much different looking concept plan for the development of this acreage. Land clearing was to begin in 2016 with completion in late 2017. Now, the new timeline has the town center (Village D) opening sometime in 2018. Will we ever see a Publix in the West Villages???? Ever since 2011 or so the mantra has been Publix coming next year....next year.....next year.

There were a few questions and answers about other events in the West Villages. There is no final word on the Atlanta Braves spring training facility. The FDOT will decide in the next few weeks if a round-a-bout is a better alternative to a traffic light for the intersection between Gran Paradiso and IslandWalk. Some form of traffic control will be installed; that has been decided. BUT, what that will be may not be what most of us would like it to be. Hold your breath and lets see what the FDOT decides.

Board of Supervisors Meeting - April 12, 2016

I will be skipping this next meeting. Looking at the agenda, it appears to be just a lot of procedural stuff:

• formal adoption of the Unit of Development Number 4
• formal adoption of public speaking rules (seems to be just a codification of past procedures)
• formal adoption of rules of order for conducting board business. I didn't see any significant departures from past informal practice at board meetings. Guess the new legal counsel is just dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

If you want to be on the email notification list for future board meetings and other such notifications, you can send an email to Tricia Lascasas <TLascasas@sdsinc.org> at Special District Services. She is the admin person for WVID and works for our District Manager, Todd Woodroska. Please do take note that all emails, and addressees to emails are public information, so your email address will be "out there" for all to see.

The online "meeting book" for this, and any other board meeting is also made available online at http://westvillagesid.org/documents/. You can read the previous meeting minutes, the current meeting agenda, and any supporting documents from the comfort of your own office or home several days before any meeting. The meeting email notifications and availability of the online "meeting book" is usually announced on the Friday before a normal Tuesday meeting.

This next meeting, and it looks like all future meetings, will be held in the new meeting location of the Sarasota County/Englewood Sports Complex located at 1300 S. River Road, Englewood, Florida 34223.

https://www.google.com/maps/@26.9758567,-82.320063,15z

Board Meeting - March 22, 2016

As usual lately, I'm a few days behind in posting about this meeting. No really good excuse, just getting lazy in my old age.

Let's start with the public comments made before the meeting:

• one resident asked about a golf cart or pedestrian overpass to connect Gran Paradiso with the IslandWalk side of US 41 and the new commercial/retail development planned for that side of the highway. This is a new idea that hasn't been discussed before. I can see some merit to it; but the cost would be high too. There was no discussion by the board about this.
• several residents voiced concern over the smoke drifting through our neighborhoods from the land clearing operations now going on. The board's response was that this was a developer issue or something to disucss with the City of North Port or Sarasota County as they are the burn permit authorities for this area. I guess this means it will be something we need to just deal with for the next few years as in when the new Unit 4 clearing is done, the clearing for the new retail/commercial area will start and more smoke will drift over us. The price of progress?
• a resident asked where the future water and wastewater plants might be located, and why the original, circa 2005, location east of River Rd. was abandoned. I know the answer to the later part of this question. The good residents of the Lake Geraldine neighborhood went balistic when the initial plan of development for West Villages was published showing the plants in their back yard on the east side of River Rd. At the time, the number of residents (voters) in West Villages was in the teens, so who do you think the politicians listened to??? Yup, the plan changed to locate the plant somewhere on the west side of River Rd. According to the district engineer, the current thinking about where to locate the plants is now somewhere along the west side or River Rd. and nearer to US 41. He also stated that a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water plant was currently the desired technology for the future water plant.
• Several residents asked about the proposed new Atlanta Braves spring training facility. The board's response was that this was a new proposal and still in negotiations and far from any kind of a done deal. In Saturday's Herald-Tribune an article stated that the Braves where also in active negotiations with the City of West Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. So....we all just need to hold our breath for a little while longer.

The district manager announced that the annual Land Owner's meeting will be held in the Englewood Sports Complex on the fourth Thursday in June (June 23rd) at 11 am. Formal notice will be published and the window for persons to step forward to fill the one board seat vacancy at this meeting runs from 90 days to 30 days before the meeting. Each land owner in the district gets one vote per acre or fraction of an acre owned. Us mere mortals get one vote for each lot that is owned in the district. The master developer owns about 4,000 acres within the district so he gets 4,000 votes. Who do you think will decide who gets to fill this vacancy?

It sounds "unfair"; but it is the law in Florida for Special Taxing Districts like ours. All started back in the 1960's with Walt Disney and the Disney World project. Now there are over 1,500 of these districts statewide. In the early years, they favor the developer as it is the developer who is planning and installing the necessary infrastructure to make their projects a reality. Some would say its only fair that they have the majority say in how that gets done.

The district engineer was authorized to begin planning for the new water and waste water treatment plants. It was stated that such plants would be needed in 3 to 4 years to support the current and planned growth within the district. It should be noted that there is currently money in the bank to pay for this study and to acquire the land on which the plants would be built. BUT, there is no money in the budget to actually design, build, and operate these plants. SO, everyone should be holding on to their wallets as there will most likely be a new bond issue sometime in the future to raise money for these projects!

It took the board all of about 20 minutes and several resolutions to set in motion a $40 million new bond issue for Unit of Development Number 4. As discussed at the last meeting, this Unit represents the 3 new neighborhoods now under construction along the east side of West Villages Parkway between US 41 and River Rd. It will be the new property owners in these neighborhoods that will be obligated to repay this debt. Just like Gran Paradiso residents are responsible for Unit 3 debt, and IslandWalk residents are responsible for Unit 2 debt. Since everyone shares in the Unit 1 (overall general district) debt, we should all see our portion of that debt payment being reduced slightly as there will soon be 900 and something new district residents to share in its repayment.

Atlanta Braves - Spring Training Stadium in West Villages?

If you follow the local news, then this isn't news to you. Yesterday and again today the Sarasota Herald Tribune has been reporting that negotiations between the Atlanta Braves, WVID, and "local leaders" are underway to build a brand new 7,500 seat baseball stadium in WVID.

In the artist rendition of what such a stadium might look like you can see that it could front on US 41 and would be just east of the State College of Florida campus which is shown in the upper right corner of the picture.

Estimated cost....$100 million

Who pays to build it? Now that is the question!!

According to the article published today, the funding would come from public bond funds issued to the WVID. Why WVID? Well because most government entities have charters or other regulations that restrict the amount of public bond debt they can incur WITHOUT public approval (a vote by the voters who will pay the taxes that repay the bond debt). However, as a state chartered Special Taxing District, WVID has the luxury of incurring unlimited amounts of bond debt subject only to the Board of Supervisors approval.

Bond debt is customarily incurred by WVID to pay for infrastructure improvements such as roads, parks, water, sewer, etc. Is a sports complex to the tune of $100 million really an "infrastructure" improvement for the district?? Only the voters can decide that....OH, sorry; the WVID voters are the land owners (read master developer) and it looks like they have already decided.

I'm not for or against the idea of a spring training facility in our backyard. But I am concerned with who is going to be paying for it, and right now that isn't clear.

This is the article from the http://www.heraldtribune.com.

Link to the article:
http://G52-SHweb.newscyclecloud.com/article/2016160309658