Community Development District 1’s potential divorce from the Architectural Review Committee has taken an awkward turn.
CDD 1 supervisors agreed Friday during a meeting at Savannah Center to hold a public hearing on July 10, where they could vote to leave the ARC and hire a paid architectural review hearing officer.
The ARC is an all-volunteer board of residents that meets for several hours each Wednesday, reviewing applications for home additions, patio improvements, driveway enhancements, and landscaping projects. A few years ago, the District Government introduced the option of using a trained hearing officer to review applications on behalf of the CDDs rather than relying on the volunteer board. The Community Development District 6 Board of Supervisors could not find a volunteer and recently switched to an ARC hearing officer. Community Development District 11 in the Fruitland Park section of The Villages is using a hearing officer, as are the CDDs south of State Road 44.
The hearing officer has been seen as an increasingly attractive option due to the difficulty of recruiting ARC volunteers and the growing complexity of the ARC manuals.
CDD 1 Board Chairman Rocky Hyder said Friday that he is looking to “the future” and believes a hearing officer could provide “professionalism and efficiency for residents.”
The hearing officer would be paid $230 per hour. ARC volunteers are not paid, but CDD 1 annually budgets roughly $600 for mileage reimbursement for the ARC meetings, which are held at the Brownwood District Office.
Last month, Supervisor Mike Miller, who previously represented CDD 1 on the ARC, said there had been a marked decline in the professionalism of the volunteer board. Three ARC members, who bristled after hearing about Miller’s comments, showed up at Friday’s meeting to make sure Miller was aware of their displeasure.
ARC member Joseph DeMayo went to the podium and demanded an apology. Miller refused to apologize.