Heritage Harbour votes to build reserves

Heritage Harbour South Community Development District supervisors approved a $461,682 budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018 with the hope residents would understand a small rise in fees now will be better than a big increase in the not-too-distant future.

Residents in the Stoneybrook and Lighthouse Cove communities were told Aug. 1 they will pay an annual increase of $34 to $37 in their assessment to cover an overall budget increase of $50,000.

Most of the increase will go toward roadway and irrigation repairs.

“It’s a really minuscule increase considering these black-and-white numbers we are looking at,” Supervisor Michelle Patterson said. “If we didn’t make it this very small amount right now, we’d be looking at a (bigger) assessment in a couple of years. We think we can do this incrementally.”

A reserves study completed by Florida Reserve Study and Appraisal Inc. for the district earlier this year confirmed the district is not putting aside sufficient reserves to fund road repair and maintenance.

Supervisor Tad Parker pointed out that the CDD in the last two months has spent about $62,000 to resurface most of Lighthouse Cove and one cul-de-sac in Stoneybrook. The money goes quickly, he said.

“The reserve study implies that we were at the very minimum of what we need for future reserves,” Parker said.

Failure of an irrigation line this year cost the district about $15,000 more than a similar repair three years ago, and the CDD did not have money allocated for such an expense.

“This is the first time we’re proactively putting money in,” Parker said.

In next year’s budget, the district likely will add reserves for wetland maintenance. The board voted to spend $1,100 to replant a wetland area, after having a contractor remove invasive species.

“All of our ponds and wetlands are going to need some ongoing maintenance as well,” Patterson said. “With all the invasive species, if you don’t get ahead of it, it absolutely will take over your community.”

Much of the district’s reserves were depleted from 2011 through mid-2013 due to litigation, when Lighthouse Cove at Heritage Harbour and Stoneybrook Investors, owner of the Stoneybrook Golf Club, challenged the way the CDD assessed properties.