HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998 07 13 Regular Item C
COMMISSION AGENDA
ITEM
c
CONSENT
INFORMATIONAL
PUBLIC HEARING
REGULAR X
July 13, 1998
Meeting
MGR/'~T %
Authorization
REQUEST: Public Works Department Requesting Direction Relative to the Creation of
an Assessment District for Street and Drainage Improvements to Colt Drive
PURPOSE: The purpose of this Board item is to request direction from the City Commission
whether to Pursue the Creation of an Assessment District for Street and Drainage
Improvements to Colt Drive to correct drainage deficiencies which are a safety
hazard.
CONSIDERATIONS:
This agenda item is needed to get Commission direction relative to the creation of
an assessment district to fix street and drainage problems on Colt Drive.
Colt Drive is a private road near the intersection of Winter Springs Boulevard and
Northern Way which lacks a stonnwater system. During significant storm events, the day
care and convenience store on this road are negatively impacted by the street flooding
because access is restricted. This affects both the operations of these businesses and
ability of the City public safety personnel to respond to emergencies. The staff has
received numerous complaints about this problem.
The funding for paving and drainage improvements to Colt Drive is the
responsibility of the road owners. Previous correspondence between Code Enforcement
and six adjacent property owners has raised questions about the ownership of Colt Drive
and resulted in no progress. An assessment district could be created to establish
ownership and assess the benefiting properties to eliminate the safety hazard.
July 13, 1998
Regular Agenda Item C
Page 2
The recommended first step in the creation of an assessment district for Colt
Drive would be to conduct a workshop with the affected property owners to discuss the
problem in which the property owners are noticed by certified mail. In the interim, a title
search would be undertaken to determine ownership of Colt Drive. Staff estimates that
the construction costs for the installation of a drainage system and street resurfacing
would cost $50,000 to $75,000.
FUNDING:
Expenses would be reimbursed through the creation of the assessment district.
Costs incurred to implement the district would be paid out ofthe General Fund.
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that direction be given to staff to begin the process of
establishing an assessment district for drainage and road improvements to Colt Drive.
IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE:
The first step in the creation of an assessment district for Colt Drive would be to
conduct a workshop with the affected property owners to discuss the problem. In the
interim, a title search would be undertaken to determine ownership of Colt Drive.
A TT ACHMENTS:
I. Location Map
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TUSCAWILLA BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT REFERENDUM - WHAT You
NEED TO KNOW BEFORE You VOTE... AND WHAT WE ALL NEED TO DO
AFTERWARDS. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS.
TBD assessment cost about $2 per week. Two step process means public
input during TBD ordinance hearings is crucial to its success.
Latest information available from the City indicates that the TuscawilIa Beautification District
(fBD) assessment per home will be about 29 cents a day, a little over $2 a week, or $105 a year.
Commercial properties are being evaluated differently and can expect higher assessments. Upon
approval, the assessment becomes part of your annual property tax bill, and escrowed with other
tax bill items.
The ballot you receive from the City will indicate the precise amount of the
assessment, so that you can be assured of that before you vote.
Deadline for return of referendum ballots is Friday, April 24. Please study recent issues
(February, March and April, 1998) of Tuscawilla Today if you have any questions about the refer-
endum, but don't delay in voting. Return your ballot early to ensure that your vote is counted.
Referendum results will be announced at the Winter Springs City Commission meeting on
Monday, April 27.
WHAT THE TUSCAWILLA BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT WILL AND WILL NOT DO.
Some confusion has resulted from recent newspaper advertisements and from deliberate mis-
information by an anonymous faction opposing the TBD (their position is staunchly against any
new tax, even though this one is clearly designed to preserve and enhance homeowners' property
values.) This makes it appropriate to restate for the record the Junctions, the onlv functions,
which the Tuscawilla Beautification District will have. These missions for the TBD are the same
ones proposed to the City months ago. They will not change in the future, unless we voters affir-
matively make that change by another referendum:
(1) Landscapin~. Upgrade, and permanently maintain on a regular basis, landscaping, sod,
plantings, trees and irrigation, electrical and associated systems on medians and in other public
and easement areas within the boundaries of the Tuscawilla Beautification District.
(2) lighting. Install upgraded, higher wattage street lighting along the length of Winter Springs
Boulevard (130 poles.) This will improve appearance, and provide enhanced safety and security for
motorists, pedestrians and joggers. Present lighting is early 80s vintage, dim (50 watts) and deteriorating.
(3) Capital construction. New entrances at Trotwood at Tuskawilla Road, Vistawilla at SR434,
Winter Springs Boulevard at the City Line (to replace entrance monument removed at SR426 by the
City of Oviedo), and Citrus at Shetland. Entrance reconstruction at Dyson Drive at Tuskawilla
Road*, and at Winter Springs Boulevard and Tuskawilla Road. Permanent masonry directional sig-
nage to subdivisions, coordinated to match entrance styling, not susceptible to sun damage and ter-
mites, will replace wooden signs. (* Dyson Drive entrance construction depends upon a 65% affirm a- -
tive vote on the TBD referendum by Tuscawilla property owners in unincorporated Seminole County.)
The City of Winter Springs will continue to have full responsibility for all other city func-
tions, including but not limited to roadway paving, parks maintenance, water, sewer, retention
pond and storm water management and all other functions that the City performed before the TBD
was proposed.
WHY DO WE NEED A TBD?
The Tuscawilla Beautification District concept was initiated to standardize a higher level of ser-
vices than the City of Winter Springs can provide citywide within its present budget structure.
Cutting, blowing and basic tree trimming, as we've learned from the declining appearance of our
medians and other public areas in recent years, is inadequate to sustain appearance.
The city program, as most city programs anywhere, also does not provide for replacement of
sod or landscaping, a regular regimen of fertilization and pest control, nor does it include plantings
of annuals and other bedded flowers or new trees and shrubs to replace those that die out.
Many Winter Springs neighborhoods outside Tuscawilla want only basic cutting in their public
areas. They should not have to pay for what they don't want. The large, landscape-intensive, pub-
lic areas of Tuscawilla, however, clearly require additional services. These services parallel what
most of us ~lready do to maintain our own lawns and gardens.
A proposal that does not include continuin~ maintenance, fertilization, pest control and replace-
ment of landscaping, irrigation and lighting components cannot succeed in the long run. THO. oppo-
nents who propose a one-shot quick fix of existing landscape problems as a cheaper alternative
have a shortsighted view of a long-term situation. Florida's intense heat, long growing season, and
heavy pest and fungus presence demand a sustained landscape management program if we are to
prevent the same problems from recurring in a year or two. In the long run, it costs no more to do
it right the first time - and to have our community looking good all the time.
SOME FACTS TO CONSIDER...
For much less than the daily cost of our newspaper, cable service, water bill, lawn care or pest
control, we property owners have the opportunity to obtain an inexpensive form of insurance that
protects the value of our homes by enhancing our community and improving our quality of life.
The entire cost of the Tuscawilla Beautification District during the years required to amor-
tize capital investment, plus all maintenance and upkeep costs, will amount to less than one per-
cent of the present assessed valuation of properties in Tuscawilla! What percentage of your prop-
erty value is represented by $105 a year?
Is a property-value increase in your home, a series of new and upgraded community
entrances, fully maintained, first-rate median and public area landscaping and safer, brighter
Winter Springs Boulevard lighting f~r pedestrians, joggers and motorists worth the investment
of 29 cents a day?
'\
WHAT ABOUT NEW ENTRANCES AND PERMANENT SIGNAGE
Unfinished aspects of Tuscawilla also keep us from realizing our community's maximum attrac-
tiveness, and from achieving a unified community identity that enhances property values. A series
of developers who laid out Tuscawilla years ago didn't put entrances at what have now become
principal gateways. It was then, and it is now, a matter of money. Entrances at Trotwood and
Tuskawilla Road, Citrus and Shetland, Vistawilla at SR 434 and Winter Springs Boulevard at the City
Line will tell visitors and prospective homebuyers more than where Tuscawilla begins. They'll also
announce that we have the vision and civic pride to enhance our community. Here's where the right
thing to do has its rewards. Property values generally rise in areas that people actively want to live
in, and fall in those that lose their vision and self-respect and let themselves go.
Those who maintain that we don't need the expense of any more new entrances haven't serious-
ly examined what the existing non-entrances look like ... and clearly don't live anywhere near them.
WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER, AND GET WHAT WE PAY FOR
Cost of this entire program, as previously announced, including all maintenance, lighting, capi-
tal construction and associated financing costs, is about $350,000 per year. That's a great deal of
money, but this is also the most wide-ranging upgrade of a major development ever programmed
in this area. THOA has recommended to the city that administration consist of an unpaid Board of
Tuscawilla residents, elected at City Commission elections starting in 1999. Appointed Board mem-
bers would operate the TBD until then.
The Tuscawilla Beautification District Board will have no connection with, and will be entirely
separate from, the Tuscawilla Homeowners Association Board of Directors. Property owners and
members of THOA will still vote for members of both, but in different elections, and very different
types of elections.
INDEPENDENT HOA PRESIDENTS SUPPORT ESTABLISHMENT OF TBD
The following Presidents and representatives of independent subdivision homeowners associations
within Tuscawilla have signed on in support of the Tuscawilla Beautification District referendum:
Tom O'Connell - Tuscawilla HOA, and the
WaIter Suika - Bear Creek Estates
Rudi Stockhammer - Bentley Green
Jeanne Rodeck - Carrington Woods
Bob Robinson - Chelsea Pare/Fox Glen
Jim Mathews - Chelsea Woods
Jeannine Weingartner - Chestnut Ridge
Helen Baker - Country Club Village
John Tabbutt - Davenport Glen
Jay Clay - rep Eagles Watch
Tuscawilla HOA Board of Directors
Michael Helfand - Fairway Oaks
Fred Curtis - Georgetowne
Bill Reischmann - Glen Eagle
Jim Buchanan - rep Greenbriar
Lee Jensen - rep Howell Creek Reserve
Al Dorris - Tusca Oaks
Norm Soper - Wedgewood Golf Villas
Doug Clark, Woodstream
In summary, the Tuscawilla HOA Board of Directors, and an overwhelming majority of the lead-
ership of independent homeowners associations throughout Tuscawilla, support the TBD. The
Tuscawilla HOA Board of Directors and others listed above will have nothing to do with the admin-
istration of the TBD in their present capacities. The details of the ordinance that will establish,
operate, and provide management structure for the TBD will be determined by a series of public
hearings before the Winter Springs City Commission. The Tuscawilla HOA Board strongly urges
property owners to attend and participate in the City Commission public hearing process to
ensure that the TBD becomes what those who are paying for it want it to become.
'~
Asking a community to tax itself for any reason. is a challenging task at best. No one in his or her
right mind will agree to spend hard-earned money without the assurance of good value in return.
The return in this case is long-term improved appearance, function and value of our community. It
is an investment in the future rather than an expenditure.
Even those who argue about how much the value of their property will increase will readily
admit that property values will decline far more than the $105 a year the TBD will cost if we do not
stem the tide of declining appearance and act to enhance and modernize our community.
Look elsewhere and compare. TBD is an investment.
Our homes' appearance and value reflect the "sweat equity" we put into keeping them looking
good and working well. We all have a "job jar" or "honey-do" list. Public areas don't receive the
same tender loving care, unless they're part of a long-term managed maintenance plan.
When each of us bought in Tuscawilla, we didn't simply buy a house, we bought into a commu-
nity because of its features, its appearance and its potential. The finest care of our individual lawns
and gardens won't improve our property values if our entrances, our main street and other public
areas look neglected.
Take a short drive this weekend. Several nearby developments, most of them much younger
than twenty-five years, are living examples of what happens when developers depart and local
homeowners associations fail to assume routine maintenance responsibilities for their public areas
and, entrances. Neglect sends a devastating message to visitors and prospective homebuyers. We
are still at a stage where top quality maintenance and capital improvements are possible ata rea-
sonable annual cost to each homeowner. When your conununity's appearance costs less than
your newspaper, you have a good benchmark for value. Voters in 1993 voted 4 to 1 in favor of
a beautification proposal and were stonewalled by the City administration at that time. That
won't happen again. This is our best chance to secure Tuscawilla's future. Consider all the facts
carefully, weigh the advantages and cost, and VOTE YES FOR BEAUTIFICATION!
Please note: The Tuscawilla Beautification District referendum is an important long-term
decision for your family, your property values and for the viability of our community. THE
FEBRUARY, MARCH AND APRIL 1998 ISSUES OF TUSCAWILLA TODAY PROVIDE ADDITIONAL
DETAILED INFORMATION TO REVIEW BEFORE YOU VOTE.
Tuscawilla Homeowners Association
P.O. Box 195666
Winter Springs, Florida 32719-5666
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