CDDs to hold public meeting on roadshare agreement

CDDs 2, 5 and 6 have been working for a year to find a way to split maintenance costs on shared gates and roads.

By Jessica Salmond
| 6:40 a.m. November 4, 2015

East County
News

Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts 2, 5, and 6 are almost ready to reach a final agreement about sharing road costs on their three shared roadways.

At a continued board meeting Thursday night, Oct. 29, CDD 6 Chairman James Rogoze updated his board on the discussions between himself, and CDD 2 and 5 chairmen, Pete Bokach and Marty Cohn, about the road share agreement they have been working on for about a year.

“We’re close to finalizing it,” he said.

Turn concerns

CDD 6 is trying to solve a space problem. The board has received complaints and concerns from residents about traffic back-up at the gate leading into the community from Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. There are only 88 feet between the gate and the street, and during peak traffic times, there is a crowding issue.

For visitors, the gatehouse staff is supposed to stop each vehicle and ask relevant information (although access cannot be denied because the street is public). However, this delay sets off a reaction that can back up Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, especially if large trucks or maintenance vehicles are waiting in line. Right now, the board has told gatehouse staff to just let people through when traffic gets backed up, Chairman James Rogoze said, but the board hopes to find another solution.

“That’s not what they’re supposed to do under normal conditions,” he said.

About a year ago, the three CDDs agreed to share costs for the two gates that give all their residents access to the neighborhoods in Lakewood Ranch Country Club: one on Balmoral Woods Boulevard and Legacy Boulevard. Then in May, the three entities agreed their shared roadways would also be good for cost savings if they all pitched in.

“We’ve tried to develop an agreement that’s fair to all districts,” Rogoze said.

The CDDs compiled data to learn how many vehicles were traveling in and out of their streets by counting the number of times a transponder was used with residents and a count of visitors, too. The number came out to about 2.5 million trips in and out.

Then, they went further and looked at the percentage of residents from each CDD who used the gates on the shared roadways. Now, they’re calculating how much each CDD should contribute based on the percentages. The numbers are still being finalized, but CDD 6 would cash out between $58,000 and $60,000 receive $92,000 over the 10-year agreement, which brings in a net of about $33,000. That trickles down to CDD 6 receiving roughly $3,000 to $3,400 annually for its portion of the cost share. The committee of chairmen took the costs of the last five major paving efforts on those roads and averaged them, and found it costs about $775,000 combined to maintain the three roads in question, Legacy Boulevard, Balmoral Woods Boulevard and Arnold Palmer Green.

While there could be a hundred ways to figure out who pays how much, Rogoze said “We felt we came up with the best way of interpreting usage.”

If approved, the roadshare agreement would be upheld for 10 years.

“Overall, it’s a win-win for CDD 6,” said Vice Chair Henry Hofeler.

Tom Willson, a Country Club West resident, is not so sure. He’s been watching the cost share discussions closely for the several years they’ve evolved, including the gate cost sharing agreement.

His biggest concern is for traffic safety on Balmoral. The street is narrow and winding, but carries a brunt of traffic that it was not designed for, he said.

“The problem is that anything we do to move traffic from Balmoral would move traffic to CDD 2 or 5 roads, which they don’t want,” Willson said.

Willson is also wary of the 10 year agreement, saying that it’s a long time for a commitment which could be less beneficial to CDD 6 in the future.

“There’s too much that can change in 10 yrs that we’ll be kicking ourselves for signing that agreement,” he said. “What is it about this agreement that makes it attractive to sign? All we get out of it is (about) $3,000 in maintenance costs.”

Before any final decision is made, however, there will be a public meeting held Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. in Town Hall. Residents can come to learn more, ask questions and express concerns and opinions, Rogoze said. At that time, the costs per CDD will have been figured.

“The idea is to be open and clear in making sure everybody understand what we’re proposing to do,” he said.