Thinking of buying in Pelican Marsh? Be sure to be aware of the latest news in the community regarding development in 2013-2014 to make the most informed buying decisions. As always, contact me directly with any questions on Pelican Marsh Real Estate at (239)-289-2650.
Article originally published in “Pelican Marsh Brief,” The Foundation of Pelican Marsh, Inc. Official Publication
By Frank Garofalo, PMCDD Chairman; Neil Dorrill, PMCDD District Manager; and John Vanover, PMCDD Operations Manager
The Pelican Marsh Community Development District includes Pelican Marsh and the commercial area at Airport and Vanderbilt and Tiburón. The commercial area originally was residential, but was changed by WCI to commercial. Tiburón originally was Pelican Marsh East. The Ritz-Carlton wanted to build a golf resort, but wanted a community name change. Greg Norman was the professional golfer who was designing the golf course. His nickname was “the Shark.” Tiburón is the Spanish word for shark, hence its new name. The areas of Pelican Marsh, the commercial area and Tiburón all pay equal operation and maintenance special assessments per each Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) for the PMCDD operating budget. The annual operations and maintenance assessment for the PMCDD is based upon the proposed expenditures (not including debt service on bonds) divided by the number of ERUs established for these three areas from the original Pelican Marsh PUD development plan, adjusted for changes in the development plans of the primary developer(s).The PMCDD monitors and controls expenditures which has enabled it to hold the operation and maintenance assessment constant for a number of years. If the assessment amount is not increased, the operating budget is expected to suffer the next two years due to reductions in revenue. These revenue reductions are out of the control of the PMCDD.
Two areas of Tiburón still remain undeveloped. WCI has been paying the operating assessments for the number of residences/ERUs planned for these two areas. Recently WCI announced that they were changing the type of residences planned for these communities. The first section, under development now, has a new building plan which results in a reduction in residences/ERUs. The first section of the original plan was for 167 units. It has now been reduced to 42 units. This is a loss to the PMCDD of 125 paying ERUs. Based upon current assessment amounts, this will result in an annual loss of about 135,000 in revenue to pay for unchanged expenditures.
The property owners and residents in the PMCDD district, including all three areas, will have to make up the revenue loss from the WCI action. This will tentatively result in an annual assessment increase of approximately $45 per resident for the 2013-14 budget year due to WCI’s building density reduction. Similarly, for the 2014-15 budget year, the second section, which as yet has not been confirmed by WCI, may be reduced from 107 down to possibly 35 units. This will result in another revenue loss, which again must be made up by the remaining property owners and residents. It is not feasible to expect the PMCDD to reduce its operating expenditures by this amount of revenue loss.
This is an alert to residents, such that they understand what will cause a projected increase assessment from the PMCDD for the next two years.