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.

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.

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.

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 - 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

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.

West Villages Has Its Own Website

Supervisor Marty Black recently sent me a link to the MyWestVillages website: http://www.mywestvillages.com/index.html.

The website is published and maintained by the general developer of the West Villages Improvement District, Mattemy Homes (a.k.a. Ranch Land Partners). It is non-Realtor and non-sales in nature. It is purely a marketing tool for the entire district. A great deal of good infomation about the history and the future of the district can be found here.

I recommend anyone following this blog to also begin following the MyWestVillages website as well. I know I will be from now on.

Board Meeting - November 2015

Today was most likely the last board meeting for the year. The next meeting is planned for January 12, 2015.

• Re-sodding of US 41 right of way and median is progressing on schedule and should be completed by year end.
• An amended Unit 1 Plan of Development was accepted by the WVID which better defines how the remaining approximately $17 million of Unit 1 bond funds will be spent in the next few years. About $12 million of the original, 2007, $30 million bond issue has already been spent on infrastructure improvements including the West Villages Parkway, city park lands, and landscaping along the Parkway and US 41.
• An appraisal of approximately 4.5 acres of land on and along the existing entrance to the State College of Florida from US 41 was approved. This access road lies on land owned by the general developer and having an access easment for the college. Conversion of the land to WVID ownership will ensure continued maintenance of the road in perpetuity and should be in public ownership rather that private for that purpose.
• A second appraisal of approximately 60 acres of land was also approved today. In conversations with the Sarasota County School Board, WVID was informed that over the years since 2007 the anticipated need for new schools has changed and school board plans now call for a K-12 school campus to be built in WVID. The original Plan of Development called for an approximate 45 acre parcel to be located more in the interior of WVID; but  the school board asked for land it could build on in the next 2 to 5 years. So, this 60 acre parcel is located along the East side of West Villages Parkway and South of the existing State College of Florida campus.
• Supervisor Marty Black put on his developers hat briefly and explained that the new Sarasota Memorial Hostiptal (SMH) health park land will front the South side of US 41 between the entrance to State College of Florida and West Villages Parkway. This 30 acre or so parcel was recently traded to SMH by the general developer for a 120 acre or so parcel previously owned by SMH that was located more in the interior of WVID. There are no imediate plans by SMH to develop this property.
• Marty also said the the general developer had signed a contract with Sembler Retail Development to begin the first commercial/retail project in WVID. The planned new development will start at the Southeast corner of US 41 and the dirt road entrance to "The Ranch". It will eventually extend East and South to almost the West Villages Parkway in both directions. This will be a retail grocercy (Publix?) anchored shopping center, commercial, and resort development to include a hotel and 13 acre man-made recreational lake providing swimming and boating amenities. Permitting has already started, land clearing should begin early next year and construction should begin by mid to late 2016. We may very well have a neighborhood grocery store by early 2017. Maybe.

I suggested to the board that future appraisals of property should include two appraisals from different appraisers. Many residents and myself have voiced conern that the single appraisals obtained in the past were inflated and did not accurately reflect conditions that should, in our opinions, have detracted from the property's value. My logic for this was that the additional cost of a second appraisal should more than be recovered by negotiating a lower purchase price for WVID acquired property in the future. Time will tell if this is the case. The board agreed to give it a try.

To everyone reading these posts, have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays to all.

October Board Meeting

The Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, 10/27 in a regularly scheduled meeting at North Port City Hall. A large portion of the meeting time was devoted to interviewing law firms to be selected as the new district attorney. Hoping, Green, & Sams was selected as a first choice to negotiate price and terms with. Presson & Cohen, PA was a close second. All of the firms interviewed specialized in special district representation.

Looks like all of the required permits for the new Village A are just about completed. Land clearing is expected to begin by years end. This parcel is located along the full length of West Villages Parkway between US 41 and River Rd., and will be bordered by River Rd. to the east and US 41 to the south. This 200 plus home development probably won't be ready to start selling homes until late 2016 or early 2017.

There is also another new and smaller development already underway by Mattemy Homes. The "Preserve at the West Villages" has this nice sign at the intersection of West Villages Parkway and River Rd. Homes are to be of a larger size on large lots. Only 100 or so homes are planned for what looks like a small and exclusive enclave.

Anyone know where this development is located? I saw a short video clip on ABC, Channel 7 news a few days ago that showed land clearing operations for this development, so there is already work going on.

I think plans are to have homes for sale here before the end of 2016.

New Paw Park is Approved

A few months ago the WVID purchased about 33 acres from the Ranch Land Partners (a.k.a. Mattemy Homes). The parcel is located along the west side of River Rd. and North of US 41, and is to be donated to the City of North Port as public park lands per existing development obligations. At Monday's City Council meeting the North Port City Commissioners approved development of this dedicated land for use as an animal "Paw Park". There is no time line set for any work to begin on such a project though.

What did this low lying, flood zone land cost WVID tax payers? Only the small sum of about $1.8 million or around $55,000 an acre.

Yes, there was an appraisal done of the land by a Florida licensed commercial appraisal company hired by WVID. BUT, many of us disagree with this land valuation. Only recourse open to us disagreers is to hire an attorney, pay for our own independent appraisal of the land, and if the valuation differs from that of the WVID hired appraiser, then we could sue the district to void the sale and renegotiate a more reasonable price.

Anyone have an extra $10k or so to get this ball rolling??? Oh, don't forget that if you loose the law suit, then you become liable for paying all of the associated court costs and legal defense costs of the district and any named individuals. The deck is really stacked against us private citizens if we want to question any actions of elected government officials.

New Grass is Coming

At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting we were notified that all permits had been obtained and a notice to proceed had been given to Valley Crest to begin the re-sodding along US 41 between the west monuments and the entrance to "The Ranch" to the east. Both sides of the road from roads edge to the sidewalks, and the median will be done using St. Augustine grass sod. The planting beds along the sides of the roads will also be reduced by about 50 percent to improve the view.

Work should start any day now and is expected to be completed before year's end. Cost.....about $640,000. Your WVID tax dollars at work.

11/19/15 update. It has been argued that this expenditure for re-sodding US 41 isn't really "tax dollars". The district has a pot of money from the original bond issues (2005/6/and 7) in the amount of around $25 million. These funds are to provide infrastructure to the district at large, and it is from this fund that the re-sodding project is being paid for. So this project doesn't represent any new assessment or taxing of residents and property owners.

What is this $25 million pot of money for? From the original plan of improvements, the district is still obligated to purchase and donate additional park lands to the City of North Port. Also the cost of land, building design and construction, and equipment (fire truck(s), police car(s), and ambulance) necessary for a Police, Fire, and First Aid station(s) in the district is still required under the original plan of development.