Neal begins transition to residents

LAKEWOOD RANCH — The transition officially has begun.

Country Club West resident Richard Williams, one of two resident supervisors on the Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 6 board, now will represent his friends and neighbors on a larger scale, as well.

The retired attorney is the first resident from CDD 6 to serve on the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority board. He replaced longtime CDD 6 supervisor Dale Weidemiller at the IDA’s Jan. 19 meeting.

“We need to get a foot in to find out what’s going on,” Williams said. “Now that I’m on the IDA, we can continue to see what their short- and long-term goals are.”

Williams and fellow resident Bob Burstein were elected to the developer-controlled CDD 6 board in 2010, after the district reached 250 electors, as per state statute.

State law will require the CDD 6 board to become completely resident-controlled this November, because the district will have more than 500 electors.

Weidemiller, one of the original developer representatives on the CDD 6 board and a current CDD 6 supervisor, recommended starting the turnover process in November 2011 — a suggestion that became official Jan. 19, as Williams formally took on Weidemiller’s role with the IDA — so residents could be ready to lead the community as soon as the election is over. Additionally, Williams and Burstein received full construction plans for CDD 6’s irrigation and gatehouse in March 2011 so they could familiarize themselves with the infrastructure they will be inheriting, Weidemiller said.

“We’ve always been very proactive with the neighbors and the boards with any of our turnovers,” said Weidemiller, president of Wilmington Land Co., a subsidiary of Neal Communities. “We treat them like we’d like to be treated. It’s a systematic turnover program, which we’ve implemented previously with other neighborhoods and CDDs successfully. The books are wide open. The decisions are wide open. There’s no reason not to start (now).”

Additionally, allowing Williams to join the IDA now will allow a CDD 6 resident to work directly with the IDA during its budget development process, as well as for the development of its five-year Capital Improvement Plan, Weidemiller said.

Although CDD 6 always has had a seat on the IDA board, the district historically has not used the IDA for infrastructure maintenance and other services, as have other Lakewood Ranch CDDs.

Williams said once residents assume control of the CDD 6 board entirely, the logical step would be for the district to use the IDA for those services. The new resident-controlled board, however, will decide how its infrastructure will be managed.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

THE DOUGNUT HOLE
The 369-acre parcel on which CDD 6 sits was formerly known as Taylor Ranch. A Neal Communities’ subsidiary purchased the property in 2003, and then worked to create a joint development agreement with Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch to incorporate the future community formally into Lakewood Ranch’s master plan.

“It was the missing hole in the doughnut,” said Dale Weidemiller, president of Wilmington Land Co., a subsidiary of Neal Communities and a CDD 6 supervisor. “It was acreage in the middle of Lakewood Ranch that was (not owned by SMR). We worked with SMR to blend it seamlessly.”

For example, part of SMR’s golf course extends onto former Taylor Ranch property, which allowed SMR to construct an additional nine holes of golf and thus create a better layout for the club and golf course. Neal ended up with some valuable golf-course fronting lots, Weidemiller said.

“It worked out for both of us,” he said.