Spanish Main explores private undergrounding

When Spanish Main Yacht Club resident Tom Freiwald first heard about Longboat key’s neighborhood undergrounding project, he thought his community would be safe from large assessments.

Then he saw the final project map.

“I said, ‘You’ve made a mistake’,” Freiwald said, because there was only one set of feeder wires above ground in the 50-year-old condominium complex. But, because that wire is within 55 feet of units, the neighborhood was assessed more than $2 million in total over the next 30 years in the latest methodology.

But after a packed Town Commission meeting July 5, and a meeting with Town Manager Dave Bullock and staff this week, Spanish Main plans to spend up to $1,500 to explore burying its own wires.

“We know it’s not going to cost more than $2 million,” Freiwald said.

During that July 5 meeting, representatives from more than six neighborhoods spoke out against the neighborhood undergrounding assessment method. And local land use attorney Robert Lincoln announced plans to formally protest the analysis.

Commissioner Phill Younger made a motion to redo the study and come up with a new methodology. The motion failed 3-4.

“I think we’re bound for a lawsuit,” he said during the meeting.

Younger attended yesterday’s meeting, but declined to speak about the presentation.

Commissioners ultimately directed Bullock to return before the board in October with a new analysis of the 55-foot rule, recommendations relating to neighborhoods self-funding their own undergrounding and advice on potential savings or other non-ad valorem sources to offset the lost revenue from self-funding neighborhoods. Click here for the Town Commission’s official direction.

The town originally gave communities through May 9, to self-bury their power lines.

“The clock had ticked so many seconds off and there wasn’t enough time to get that done,” Freiwald said. “Now that clock has been reset, and we have some time to open that conversation.”

Although the Town Commission won’t decide on whether to extend the timeframe for self-funding until later this year, Spanish Main intends to move forward with a survey of its wiring. Representatives will the contact Florida Power & Light for an estimate.

That could take up to six months, but Freiwald said he aims to make significant progress by the Town Commission in which the issue will again be discussed.

“We don’t want to wait until October to begin,” he said.

According to Lincoln during the July 5 meeting, Club Longboat received a $25,000 from FPL to bury its wires.

“Even if the commission chooses at the October meeting not to allow communities to bury their own wires, our investment will be time and that $1,500,” Freiwald said. “When you weigh that against the opportunity to impact 212 taxpayers, that’s not much of a risk.”