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The District was created to finance
and manage the acquisition, construction, operate and maintain of a
portion of the
infrastructure
necessary for
community development. The
Ordinance establishing the District authorizes the District to issue
bonds for the purpose of financing, funding, planning, establishing,
acquiring, constructing or reconstructing, enlarging or extending,
equipping, operating and maintaining water management, water supply,
sewer and wastewater management, roadways (Ashley Crossing Place,
Barrington Cove Point, Bristol Channel Way, Corinth Crossing Way,
Milford View Place, Port Concorde Lane, Swansea Bay Court, and
Westcott Cove Boulevard), bridges or culverts,
street lights and other basic
infrastructure projects within or without the boundaries of the
District as provided in the establishment Ordinance.
All landowners will also pay non-ad valorem assessments related
to capital costs and operation and maintenance costs of District
facilities and services. Bonds were issued to fund these capital
costs, and the bonds were secured by pledged revenues which are
collected on behalf of the District in the form of non-ad valorem
assessments by the properties within the District that benefit from
the capital improvements.
The annual assessment is comprised of two components:
debt service and maintenance.
The debt service component is the
fixed amount required to amortize the debt for the infrastructure
and facilities acquired or constructed by the District. The annual
debt assessment collected for each property has been determined
based upon use of each parcel. The District has levied a
debt assessment against your property that is based on benefit and
your pro-rata share of the cost of the public infrastructure and
facilities financed by the District.
The maintenance component is an
annual assessment for operations and maintenance of District
infrastructure and facilities. Each year, the Board of Supervisors
holds a public hearing to set the budget and the level of operations
and maintenance assessments. Included in the operations and
maintenance assessment is your pro-rata share of the annual costs to
administer the District.
While these assessments are not taxes, they will appear on your
property tax bill that you receive in November of each year. If you
have a mortgage on your property and your taxes are escrowed, your
assessments may be included in your monthly mortgage payment. In
such case, your tax bill will be sent directly to your mortgage
company and will be paid from your escrow account.
The Vista Lakes CDD has issued in
three bond series, Series 2000, Series
2002 and Series 2007, for
the benefit of public infrastructure and facilities for all
properties within the District.
The Series 2000 and 2002 bonds were financed over a 30-year period, subject at any
time to refinancing or refunding at the direction of the Board of
Supervisors. Such refunding did occur in 2007 with the Series 2007
Refunding Bonds to paydown the remaining bond indebtedness for the
earlier bond series. These refunding bonds will be paid back over a
10-year period.
Click
here for the current assessment chart.
These assessments
are fixed over the life of the bonds and are included on
the annual real estate tax bills. Any home owner has the option of
paying down this debt assessment early, either in part or in whole,
which will either reduce or eliminate the annual debt assessment
levied on the property. For information on paying down your debt
assessment, please contact the Assessment Department at
954-603-0034.
For those homeowners choosing not to
paydown the debt assessment early, you will pay this assessment only
for the period of time that you own your home, or until 2017,
whichever is sooner. If you sell your home before the District bonds
are paid off, the next owner becomes responsible for paying their
share of the cost of the
infrastructure and facilities.
The operations and maintenance assessment may vary based upon the
general fund budget adopted each year after an advertised, public
hearing. The budget for fiscal year 2009 shows the maintenance
assessments by product type on page 7 of the budget.
Click here for the
adopted fiscal year 2009 budget.
The debt component added to the
operations and maintenance component result in the total non-ad
valorem assessments included on your annual real estate tax bill.
The CDD constructs, operates and maintains public infrastructure,
open to the general public, while the HOA constructs, operates and
maintains private infrastructure, such as the Residents' Club which
is for the exclusive use of the property owners of Vista Lakes.
While each entity performs very similar activities, such as
landscape maintenance, each organization has a different governing
Board and a different organizational charter. Each entity will also
separately award maintenance contracts and hire consultants and
employees for its own particular needs.
The meetings of the CDD Board of Supervisors are held at the
Vista Lakes clubhouse at 10:00 a.m. on the second Thursday of
each month.
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