Stoneybrook Golf Club, CDD spar

As General Manager Chris Brandt sits at the Stoneybrook Golf Club, golfers cart to greens, while residents enjoy a late lunch.

The scene is typical at the course, but behind the scenes, the club is working to protect its ability to conduct business as usual. Under the new methodology for Community Development District assessments, the club would go from paying about $6,777 annually to about $40,600 for Heritage Harbour South Community Development District assessments, excluding debt service.

Brandt said the increase could have “significant” impacts on the club’s ability to conduct business. The club’s attorney has been attending budget meetings for Heritage Harbour South.

“We want to keep talking, but where it’s going now does not work,” Brandt said. “We want to be part of the solution.”

The increase primarily can be attributed to costs associated with stormwater management, for which the CDD now is assuming responsibility. The 2012 Fiscal Year budget originally had proposed an increase of about $111,000 — an increase of more than 1,500% — for the club.

CDD Chairman Lee Bettes said he believes the new assessment methodology is fair and also noted the golf club owns 140 of 950 acres in Heritage Harbour South.

“They’re simply paying their fair share under the new (methodology),” Bettes said.

Brandt said the club is continuing to work toward a reduction in proposed rates.

The golf course had been paying its existing rates for nearly a decade before Mark and Cindy Pentecost purchased the club in September 2010.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

Landscaping duties stay with hoas
Landscaping in the Heritage Harbour South Community Development District will remain under the control of the community’s homeowner associations.

CDD supervisors voted July 14 to remove the item from the proposed 2012 Fiscal Year budget and let the HOAs continue to oversee landscaping in their respective communities.

“We were taking a successful contract and moving it for the sake of moving it,” CDD Chairman Lee Bettes said. “Since we (weren’t) creating economies of scale with what we were doing, (we decided to) leave it where it was. We had to go through the process to discover the right thing.”