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.

WVID Meeting - February 23, 2016

This regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held at the IslandWalk amenities center, and was well attended by residents of both IslandWalk and Gran Paradiso. During the opening public comment period audience members voiced concerns about the lack of a traffic light at the entrances to the two developments at US 41, and wanted to know who was responsible for getting the light installed. The district manager and engineer both explained that the traffic light was not within the scope of infrastructure provided by WVID, and that the developers of both developments had agreed to pay for a traffic light. The current delay is being caused by Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) inability to date to issue a warrant for such a traffic light. It was suggested that residents of the district contact the local FDOT office to put pressure on them to make a decision (hopefully, the right one).

A few days after this meeting, WVID resident Ali Johnston created an online petition to FDOT to warrant a traffic light at the entrances to both developments. As of today, there are well over 300 signers to the petition (I am one of them) and Ali plans to seek a meeting with the local FDOT officials sometime this week to present the petition. If you haven't already signed the online petition, please do so:

Traffic Light Petition address on Change.org:
https://www.change.org/p/florida-governo...

Florida Governor: Approve Traffic Light at 41/Tamiami at the West Villages District BEFORE Someone Gets Hurt

A traffic light needs to be installed at the entrances of IslandWalk and Gran Paradiso of the West Villages along US41/Tamiami Trail before someone gets seriously hurt! It is a dangerous intersection currently with cars regularly traveling at speeds in excess of 55mph (the speed limit in that section)....

CHANGE.ORG

The public comments also were concerned with where the proposed new retail and commercial center would be built. The district manager explained that the original location on about 110 acres at the northwest corner of US 41 and West Villages Pkwy was not viable. That parcel is still owned by the original WVID master developer, Fourth Quarter Properties, and is encumbered by back taxes, assessments and foreclosure fees in excess of $40 million. The proposed location of the new center is shown in the picture at left, and hopefully will be completed by the end of 2017.

The business conducted by the WVID during this meeting was also significant:

1. A petition to form a new Unit of Development was received from the developers of the three new subdivisions planned along the north end West Villages Pkwy between US 41 and River Rd. (the East side of the parkway and extending all the way to US 41 to the south and River Rd. to the east). The board intends to respond by creating a new UNIT 4 that will encompass the boundaries of these 3 new subdivisions, and to begin the process of identifying necessary infrastructure to support this new Unit and the cost thereof. The board will also be moving forward on requesting new public bond funds to pay for this new infrastructure. This should all transpire fairly quickly over the next few months.
2. Only those home buyers living within this new Unit of Development will be obligated to repay the new bond debt incurred for creating the new infrastructure. These new home buyers will also pay into the Unit 1 plan of development which is a shared cost among all WVID property owners, thus reducing the per property cost slightly of every current resident in the district for this Unit.
3. Two appraisal reports were received for a 60 acre parcel located south of the State College of Florida and along the West Villages Pkwy in the amounts of $4.5 and $5.4 million. This tract would be a future home for a Sarasota County School Board K-8 or possbily K-12 school. The district manager stated there were no current plans by the school board to build such a school. When purchased, this land would be dedicated to the school board. Purchase of the land would be made by WVID using existing Unit 1 bond funds that were allocated for this purpose back in 2005 when the district was formed. No purchase decision was made at this time.
4. Two appraisals were also received for a small, 0.5 acre parcel that is the current access road to the State College of Florida (SCF) from US 41. A question was raised by the public as to what it was that WVID would be buying; the land only with its existing access easement to the SCF, or the land and all the improvements thereon which are owned by SCF since they paid to build and maintain the road. The matter was referred to district legal staff to review.
5. WVID now has offices in the South County Resource Center building located just off of the West Villages Pkwy. They are to be used primarily for records storage; but will also serve as the office for the District's part-time Operations Manager as well. This new lease arrangement will replace leased space in a storage trailer previously provided by Thomas Ranch.

Tax Certificate Sales July Update

As of July 1st, 2011, the following parcels in WVID remain unsold and the tax NOT PAID:

2010 Property Tax Revenue Update

The county Tax Collector still hasn't updated any of their online database files since June 8th; but I did take a look just now at the "real time" tax certificate sale website. Things appear to be looking up for us; at least a little. Nothing has changed regarding Gran Paradiso, and all of their large acreage parcels still have unsold certificates. However, much of the Fourth Quarter Properties large acreage parcels are now showing as "unavailable" for sale. Whether this means a tax certificate has been recently sold or that Fourth Quarter has paid the tax bill; I don't know yet. But it does mean that the majority of Fourth Quarter Owned property tax revenue will be received by the WVID.

Certainly good news for us. The district will remain solvent for another year. What will happen with the Gran Paradiso village is still a very open ended situation.

2010 Tax Certificate Sale - Update

The County Tax Collector's office hasn't released the June 15th numbers yet; but I have reviewed the data as of the last official release of information on June 8th. The UNSOLD Tax Certificates still held by the County for WVID land is:
  Gran Paradiso I & II have a total of 23 parcels of land with a total of $7.29 million in unpaid taxes for 2009 and 2010 tax years.
   Fourth Quarter Properties has a total of 11 parcels of land with a total of $4.26 million in unpaid taxes for the 2010 tax year.

These number reflect the total tax bill including penalties and interest due as of June 2011. The WVID assessment portion of this total bill is much less; but I do not have that amount and remain hopeful that this number will be revealed at the next WVID meeting.

2010 Property Tax Certificate Sales - Preliminary Numbers

Today was the big day for tax certificate sales via an open auction process. Unsold certificates can still be purchased over the counter, and the tax collectors office will not publish a final tabulation of tax certificate sales until June 15th. But here are the numbers, as best as I can interpret them, from the tax collectors website as of today:

Tax Certificate Sale

June 1st is the Sarasota County bid closing date for delinquent tax certificate sales from 2010 unpaid taxes. I thought it would be nice to update the previous history about tax certificates for WVID. You can review last years newspaper articles about the subject:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100610/article/6101086

Basically, a "mystery" company that was just formed in May 2010 came forward in June 2010 with about $7 million to buy the 2008 and 2009 Gran Paradiso delinquent tax certificates. No one seems to know who they are or what they intend to do. I expect "they" will show themselves again in 2011 when delinquent tax certificates for both Gran Paradiso and most of the 5,000 or so acres of undeveloped WVID land  become available in June.

If you'd like to know more about how the Tax Certificate and subsequent Tax Sale works in Florida, visit the Sarasota County Tax Collectors website at:
https://www.sarasotacountytaxsale.com/showDocument.cfm?HideMenues=0&document_title=Tax%20Certificate%20Process

WVID Meting 4/26/2011

Mark your calendars. Parkway / Hwy 41 intersection ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, May 19, 2011. Regarding non-payment of 2010 taxes by Gran Paradiso and Fourth Quarter Properties, the District Manager made the following statements:

Trouble in Paradise ?

This is really old news; but it was new news to me when I found it last night. While researching the two lots WVID wants to buy at the SW corner of River Rd. and Hwy 41, I discovered that this land had been foreclosed on by M&I Bank from Fourth Quarter Properties. The property records referenced a civil court document as authority for the foreclosure action. Well, I found the public notice for that foreclosure action in a July 19, 2010, Sarasota Sun Herald Tribune newspaper public notice:

General Principles of Agreement

Did you know, that way back in 2006 when the City of North Port annexed the West Villages land and the West Villages Improvement District was created, that the City, the WVID, and the developer, Fourth Quarter Properties, entered into a formal and binding agreement? This agreement pretty much guaranteed that the "promised" dedication and financial support of parks, utilities, fire, police, and medical infrastructure necessary to the formation of our new community would be done, and furnished at no cost to the City.  Read the terms of the agreement documents for all of the details.

Audit Report for FY 2008-09 is Posted

Finally....14 months after the end of the fiscal year the State Auditor General's office has posted the WVID audit report for the FY ending September 30, 2009.  I haven't read it yet; but you can see it at the Auditor General's website: Click HERE

THE THREE WVID FUNDS

As I understand it, the WVID district functions using three different funds: a General Fund, a Bond Fund, and a Capital Improvements Fund. Each fund is used as follows: