FULL STORY: Ranch Town Hall launches website

LAKEWOOD RANCH — A new governance website for Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts and homeowners associations is up and running.

Lakewood Ranch Town Hall officials launched the new website, www.lakewoodranchgov.org, April 30. The site provides information on all things pertaining to the resident-controlled portions of Lakewood Ranch — CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5, as well as the Inter-District Authority — as well as the homeowners associations that serve residents in those areas.

The site has replaced Digital Village, which has provided a website to the districts and HOAs for more than a decade. Digital Village, however, will continue to provide website services for residents in Country Club East and the Lake Club.

“I’m ecstatic and relieved it’s all worked out,” said Lakewood Ranch Town Hall Executive Director Eva Rey, who spearheaded the project. “This is great. (It’s) something I’ve wanted to see happen since the day I arrived here.

“This is a one-stop shop for access to your local government,” she said. “Before, there was no one place where (people) could go for information. It just wasn’t consistent.”

The new site home page features a rotating news story and other updates to help keep residents and visitors apprised of building closures, CDD meetings and elections and other seasonal topics. Sidebars include topics such as transponders, the Dog Park, facility rentals, resident orientation, governmental acronyms and other pertinent information.

At the top of the homepage, visitors can gain access to information on CDDs, HOAs, a document library that includes agendas and supplemental information and a calendar for Town Hall.

Rey said the new format should improve the transparency of Town Hall and help residents find the information they are seeking.

The Document Library takes website visitors to a directory of information for CDDs, the IDA and homeowners associations, among other resources, while the portions of the site for CDDs and the IDA link residents and visitors alike to information regarding the districts by which they are governed.

Residents can contact their representatives via the website and also view a map of the district’s boundaries, meeting agendas and minutes and link to CDD-related documents found within the website’s document library that include items such as financial statements and audits, budgets, resolutions, contracts, presentations and reports, among others.

For the IDA, tasked with overseeing Town Hall and common-interest issues for the districts, visitors can access information about each of Town Hall’s departments — administration, community associations, finance and operations — as well.

The HOA portion of the site directs residents to their respective homeowners association page, where they can see the board’s officers, a list of neighborhoods within the association, and view governing documents, bulletins, information on committees and more.

The Calendar tab shows visitors at what days and times various rooms in Town Hall have been reserved, and color codes them according to function, whether the IDA, CDD, HOA, or clubs and organizations or other.

“It’s for use of Town Hall, parks and board rooms, not Lakewood Ranch events,” Rey said.

Under the Community Resources tab, visits can access documents such as budget request forms, modifications request forms and park usage and other forms. They also can view a list of Lakewood Ranch clubs that utilize Town Hall for meetings, although clubs, overall, are handled through the Lakewood Ranch Community Activities Corp., found online at www.lwrcac.com.

Rey said more improvements to the website are still to come.

“We’re going to constantly be changing, upgrading and adding new features,” Rey said.

The new website has an initial start-up cost of about $24,000 and annual recurring costs of about $500. Lakewood Ranch residents in CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5 were paying about $70,000 in total annually, through their homeowners association dues, for Digital Village.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

WEB WORKSHOPS
Lakewood Ranch Town Hall will hold public workshops on the new website to solicit feedback from users at 6 p.m. May 8 and 9, and 9 a.m. May 10, at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall, 8175 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.