The Community Development District 7 Board of Supervisors signaled Thursday they won’t be rushed into making a decision on the future of the Project Wide Advisory Committee.
Earlier this week, the Sumter Landing Community Development District Board of Supervisors, through its attorney Kevin Stone, sent a letter to the attorneys for CDD 7 and the other community development districts regarding “non-negotiable” aspects of an amended interlocal agreement that would pave the way for a second PWAC for community development districts south of State Road 44.
One of the non-negotiable aspects of the agreement is that, “The method for allocating costs among the districts by assessable acreage will remain in its present form.”
Some CDD supervisors have objected to the formula as the residents pay the lion’s share of the costs of PWAC through their maintenance assessment fees. The commercial districts at Lake Sumter and Brownwood pay a far smaller percentage. Making the commercial districts’ portions even smaller is the fact that the parking lots are not counted as part of the assessable acreage. Some supervisors have argued the commercial districts pay the least but benefit the most, including maintenance of the lighthouse at Lake Sumter Landing and the replacement of rotting wood at Brownwood Paddock Square.
The CDD 7 supervisors and their attorney, Michael Eckert of Hopping Green & Sams of Tallahassee, appear eager to challenge the assessable acreage formula.
CDD 7 supervisors also indicated they have no intention of adhering to the timeline suggested by the SLCDD attorney in the letter.
“SLCDD expects that any final proposals will be considered at its meeting in the first part of September, so any responses to this letter should be provided by the end of August,” Stone wrote in the letter.
CDD 7 Chairman Jerry Vicenti said if the item appears on their agenda, the supervisors could choose to table it.
“Just because you put it on the agenda, doesn’t mean we are going to address it,” Vicenti said. “We don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do.”
The actions of CDD 7 are being highly scrutinized, and PWAC Chairman Don Wiley was in the audience at Thursday’s meeting at Savannah Center. Wiley, who also serves as Community Development District 10’s board chairman, did not speak at the meeting. Earlier this week, he commented on the financial benefit CDD 10 could realize under the new agreement.
If any of the signatories to the original PWAC votes against the new agreement, it will not move forward and CDD 7 is clearly holding a trump card.
