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CDD Fees Decline

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By LAURA KINSLER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 17, 2008

LIVE OAK PRESERVE - Homeowners in Live Oak Preserve will have some extra change in their pockets next year. Their community development district fees likely will go down for the second year in a row.

In Live Oak 1, the community's first phase, homeowners will see their annual assessments decrease about $26.
Property owners in Live Oak's second phase pay significantly higher assessments to retire their debt, but they will see a greater savings this year in their operations costs. The proposed budget would lower those operations assessments by $334, or 60 percent.

"Things are looking pretty good for these districts," District Manager Andy Mendenhall said. "Everything we did the past two years has paid off."
Mendenhall said board supervisors have cut spending. They also built a reserve fund over the past two years, large enough to cover district expenses for several months.

CDD fees are collected as a non-ad valorem assessment when homeowners pay their property taxes. The revenue goes to pay for the cost of building and maintaining the community's drainage system, ponds and entrance roads.

Residents who live in Phase 2 often complain about their debt service assessments, which range from $750 to $1,400 per lot. That's because the construction prices were higher when the second phase was developed, causing the bonds to be more expensive than in the earlier phase. Phase 2 also has fewer lots, so the expense must be shared among fewer property owners.

The lower operations and management assessment should bring their total tax bill more in line with what owners in Phase 1 pay.

The board also reviewed the preliminary CDD budget for The Hammocks, a 500-unit town house community on County Line Road. Owners in Brentwood Village would be assessed $1,279; in Oakwood Village, the assessment would be $1,145.

The board expects to give preliminary approval to the budgets June 10. A public hearing will be scheduled for August.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 865-4844 or lkinsler@tampatrib.com.

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