Life After Incorporation

Although all of the impacts of incorporation on Lakewood Ranch residents still are unclear, supporters of the idea say it certainly will improve services and give residents more control over their futures. By bringing planning and zoning decisions into a new Lakewood Ranch City Council, the Incorporation Study Committee believes residents ultimately will have more access to the politicians making decisions for their community.

The Friends of Lakewood Ranch, the group opposing the idea, fears the opposite. By adding a council and dissolving existing Community Development Districts, the group believes residents actually will have less control, because each of Lakewood’s five districts would have fewer representatives and all officials would be up to a citywide vote (rather than by district).

This week, we examine the major changes that would occur according to the proposed Lakewood Ranch city charter.

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE
Currently, the five Community Development Districts are governed by five supervisors who all live within the districts they represent. Only residents of a district can vote for supervisors within that district. The Inter-District Authority Board, comprising one representative from each CDD, makes decisions that affect all five districts on their behalf.

As proposed, the city of Lakewood Ranch would have a council-manager form of government. There would be five city council members, and each council member would live within the district he or she is representing, but all council members would be elected by a citywide vote.

Of the five representatives, one council member would serve as mayor and a second as deputy mayor. Council members, not the public, would select from within their group which representative would serve as mayor and deputy mayor on a biennial basis.

Supporters say having a city and city council would allow Lakewood Ranch residents alone to make decisions affecting the community, because it would give Ranch residents alone a voice in planning and other issues. The move also would simplify the community’s government structure by replacing supervisors from existing CDDs — 25 in total — and the Inter-District Authority Board, which governs shared issues for Districts 1, 2, 4 and 5, with five citywide elected officials.

“We also would have a seat at the table for economic development,” Incorporation Study Group Chairman Tom Thomaides said.

But members of the Friends of Lakewood Ranch disagree. The new boundaries, they said, take away the voice of current esidents by making them the minority group of homeowners within each future district. They also say having all five CDD supervisors living in a resident’s own CDD offers residents more local control.

Additionally, Friends members said city council members would be able to take campaign contributions from developers — a fact that may influence future decisions of the board. Developer contributions are not an issue for CDD supervisors, currently, they said.

CDDS AND HOAS
Under incorporation, at first, Lakewood Ranch’s existing CDDs would continue to exist. The charter states as per Florida statute, the city would, “as soon as practical and upon a finding of sufficient evidence, adopt a non-emergency ordinance providing for a plan of transfer of a specific community development service to the city for each of the Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts.”

“This whole transition is gradual,” study group member Keith Davey said. “On day one, the CDDs are still there. The CDDs are still going to be responsible for their own infrastructure. At least initially, that would not change.”

The CDDs then would become dependent special districts under the city, each with the same boundary as the five CDD districts, and a sub-account would be established for each sub-district. All funds received from non-ad valorem assessments for the dependent special district would be assigned to the appropriate sub-district and sub-account and would be expended only for benefits “within or for the benefit of the specific sub-district,” the proposed charter states.

The city charter calls for the creation of a Special District Advisory Committee to advise council members on matters pertaining to each district.

The charter states the advisory committee will comprise one appointee from each sub-district “chosen by all homeowners association or associations and the condominium association, if any, within the sub-district.

But Friends say the notion is misleading.

“This committee was put in there to look good, but it means nothing,” Gary Berns said. “It’s not the same (as what we have today).”

Under the current structure, CDD supervisors solicit suggestions from homeowners associations within their district regarding landscaping and other issues for which the CDD budgets and makes decisions.
Under the advisory committee structure, only one representative of the Summerfield/Riverwalk Village Association would sit on the committee and advise the council on issues pertaining to his or her district.
“The ability to make (decisions) under the charter rests solely (with the city council),” Berns said. “The new committee can give advice about it but can’t make the decision. Even there, the advice is diluted.”

Incorporation has no effect on incorporation for the existing HOAs.

RESPONSIVENESS
Friends members Bob Hendel and Gary Berns believe the incorporation will lead to a reduction in the quality of service residents now have. With only a few direct city employees, residents may have a harder time having their issues resolved, they said.

“When there are complaints, how do you get to the right person?” Hendel said.

Pro-incorporators, however, believe operating under a city structure will improve services to residents with the potential to reduce costs through economies of scale. Using contracts for services, the city will better be able to manage the effectiveness of its contractors and improve the overall service residents now have, they said.

“The intent is to provide better services to people at the same or less cost,” Davey said.

Davey said services would not be affected, because most services already are provided through contracts. Town Hall’s operations department and front desk services could remain as they are.

Davey said his group has developed a scope for a future transition plan based on other cities, but it does not plan to fine-tune a transition plan unless incorporation is given a favorable vote in an upcoming straw poll.

DISTRICT BOUNDARIES
Under the charter, the city would be divided into five districts that are different from the existing CDDs.

District 1 — Includes the portion of CDD 1 north of the Braden River (Summerfield) and all property north of State Road 70, west of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, east of the Lakewood Ranch boundary line and south of State Road 64.

District 2 — Includes all of CDD 2 in Manatee County and all property east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard in Sarasota County.

District 3 — Includes all of CDD 6 and all of CDD 1 south of the Braden River (Riverwalk) and, in addition, all property west of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and south of CDD 1 and east of the west Lakewood Ranch boundary line and north of the south Manatee County line, in Manatee County. It also includes all property west of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard in Sarasota County.

District 4 — Includes all of CDD 4 (Greenbrook) west of Lorraine Road and all property north of S.R. 70 between Lorraine Road on the east and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard on the west, except for Lorraine Corners Retail Center and the Chevron Center at the northwest corner of Lorraine Road and S.R. 70, and S.R. 64 on the north.

District 5 — Includes all of CDD 5, a portion of CDD 4 (Greenbrook) east of Lorraine and the property north of the south line of Manatee, east of Lorraine Road, south of S.R. 70 and west of the eastern Lakewood Ranch boundary and all property north of S.R. 70 between Lorraine Road and the eastern boundary of Lakewood Ranch on the east except Lorraine Corners Retail Center and the Chevron Center at the northwest corner of Lorraine Road and S.R. 70 shall be included and S.R. 64 on the north.

VOTING
The Incorporation Study Group anticipates conducting a straw poll of voters about incorporation sometime in August. If Lakewood Ranch residents indicate they are favorable toward incorporation, the committee will submit appropriate documentation to the state Legislature for consideration. If approved, the issue of incorporation will come back before Lakewood Ranch’s registered voters for a referendum, likely in June 2012. If approved by voters, Lakewood Ranch’s effective date of incorporation likely would occur in the summer of 2012.

City council members would be elected after the referendum but before the city incorporates.

TAXES
The study group said incorporation of Lakewood Ranch is feasible without a tax increase. Individual CDDs or Manatee County could increase assessments that would impact residents within Lakewood Ranch, but becoming a city itself would not change the amount residents are taxed in most cases. Only residents in Sarasota may see an increase to accommodate a charge from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office for services, but pro-incorporators said those increases likely could be offset with other savings.

“The only thing that would change is, for the people in the CDDs today, the line item for the unincorporated MSTU (tax),” Thomaides said.

FIRE/EMS/POLICE
Incorporation, as proposed, would have no effect on the amount of police, fire and other emergency services in Lakewood.

Policing services would continue to be provided by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, with which the city would maintain a contract. A similar structure would exist for fire and EMS services. Those contracts would provide the same service that currently exists, although Lakewood Ranch residents would have the option to add to those services for an additional cost Adding additional patrols could eliminate the need for the roving security patrols in CDDs 1 and 4, for example — if residents desire increased levels of service. Pro-incorporators believe the costs could be offset with revenues the city receives and by eliminating CDD-contracted security services. Friends members say more services would translate to higher costs.

The proposed city charter prohibits the creation of Lakewood Ranch’s own police department without a public referendum.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].