Is crane needed on Waterlefe landscape?

Is a beautiful view of a sandhill crane priceless?

What if the price tag was $27,000?

Waterlefe residents are pondering their love for the bird as beautification plans are being made for the inside of a roundabout located at the north end of Waterlefe Boulevard, where it splits into Winding Stream Way to the east and into Fish Hook Cove to the north.

A single palm occupies that area, surrounded by bushes and sod. Unfortunately, trying to keep the palm healthy has proved troublesome.

Since the area serves as a welcoming point to visitors and those pondering a move to the community, Waterlefe Community Development District supervisors are researching ways to improve the aesthetics of the roundabout.

CDD Vice Chairman John Brocki has taken the lead on the roundabout redesign as representative of the CDD on the community’s landscape committee. 

He previously presented the board with a design by Simply Verde for a heavily landscaped circle, planted with gold mound duranta, bottle brush, Japanese privet and foxtail fern. Its focal point, however, is a proposed $27,000 sandhill crane statue.

The statue — particularly its price tag — has received mixed reviews. Supervisors said at their October meeting they weren’t sold on spending that much money on a piece of artwork, although the project overall would be within budget.

After about a year of informal discussion, Waterlefe Community Development District supervisors still don’t know how to proceed. Supervisors had planned to discuss the roundabout Nov. 28, but opted to postpone the bulk of the discussion for next month because the meeting was running too long and to give time for two new board members, Alan Haibach and Bill Strollo, to get more background on the issue.

CDD Chairman Ken Bumgarner said everyone is frustrated by how long the redesign project is taking, but it’s worth the extra effort.

“It’s a big piece of property,” Bumgarner said. “Within reason, what do you do with it to make it look good? It’s a very important sight as you come in. It visually impacts people. When you do it, you want to do it right.”

The CDD board has $70,000 in last year’s budget for the roundabout redesign, but it still has not reached a consensus. Ultimately, the board must first decide if it wants to keep the existing palm tree — two of three palm trees on the roundabout have died because of problems with the soil — or remove it to make way for another design concept.

Besides the landscaping with the statue idea, an alternative proposed was to install a fountain. Brocki reached out to several contractors for design and cost estimates. By the Nov. 28 meeting, only one had fully responded, offering a $193,00 proposal for a fountain with a 30-foot base. There would be no landscaping around the fountain to minimize leaves dropping into it.

“It’s very elaborate,” Brocki said of the design. “I don’t think we can afford that $193,000, but it could be scaled back. You need something big there.”

The second contractor suggested a rock formation for a fountain, but had not proffered renderings or an estimate by Tuesday.