Nocatee developers clear a hurdle

COURTESY : First Coast Community - The Beaches Shorelines
BY Drew Dixon 
Published April 7, 2004 

Nocatee developers are a step closer to getting a community development district designation, which will pass costs of building roads and sewers and other infrastructure on to future residents of the sprawling housing and commercial complex to be built west of Ponte Vedra Beach.

After February public hearings, Florida Administrative Law Judge J. Lawrence Johnston has recommended that Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet approve the CDD application submitted by Nocatee officials.

"Based on the record of evidence, the petition appears to meet all statutory requirements and there appears to be no reason not to grant the petition" that would establish two CDDs for Nocatee, Johnston wrote in his March 29 opinion.

The districts would be called the Split Pine CDD, which will oversee the 2,000-acre Duval County portion of Nocatee. The Tolomato CDD will service 13,000 acres to be built in St. Johns County.

Under state law, CDDs allow developers to take out bonds for massive infrastructure projects such as roads and sewers. The bonds are repaid by levying property assessments on landowners who move into the district.

Jacob DiPietre,spokesman for the governor's office, said staff will review the recommendation and there'll likely be more hearings before Bush and the Cabinet take up the issue while acting as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission this summer.

"Just because a judge recommends something doesn't mean this is how it's going to be ruled," DiPietre said.

But he also acknowledged that in the 24-year history of CDDs in Florida, none has been stopped. DiPietre said some CDD applications were initially rejected, but were eventually approved by the governor and Cabinet after modifications to the original application. There are about 270 CDDs in the state.

"We're pleased with the judge's recommendation and we're ready to move on to the next step," said Greg Barbour, president of the PARC Group, the developers of Nocatee.

One of the next steps is to begin a $100 million reconfiguration of County Road 210 to service the Nocatee area. That project is scheduled to begin this year and will be one of the elements to be repaid through future CDD assessments if the districts are approved by the state.

Barbour will be one of the original board members for both CCDs. He'll be joined by fellow PARC Group employees Anne Klinepeter, Arden Tomsczak and Lauren O'Steen, daughter of PARC Group Chairman Roger O'Steen. John Hewins is the other member of the planned CDD board. Hewins is the general manager of Marshal Creek Country Club.

The application of the CDDs for Nocatee drew criticism from some local government officials and citizen activists over how the original hearings were held and advertised.

Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens for Justice, a statewide property rights advocacy group, accused Nocatee officials of trying to disguise the CDD applications by calling them Split Pine and Tolomato. He lashed out at the developers for not using the word Nocatee in the advertisements for the February hearings. Bergemann said the move was made to keep the public in the dark.

Nocatee officials have stated they chose the new names for the proposed CDDs to prevent confusion and single out each county's areas.

Bergemann said he's not surprised the CDDs were given preliminary approval from the administrative law judge.

"That's no miracle," said Bergemann, who lives in St. Augustine. "I could have told you that before" the hearings.

Bergemann added there's no chance the government would turn down the Nocatee CDD application, especially since every previous application was approved.

"The government likes it," Bergemann said. "Our government saves taxes by doing so. It more or less puts the pressure on the consumer, who in the end will pay for all of that. We've seen this before."

Bergemann's group isn't necessarily against the proposed Nocatee CDDs, but they take issue with the general philosophy of CDDs. Bergemann said the CDDs take away local government control over what is equivalent to a "special taxing district" and puts it in the hands of corporate representatives until there are enough residents in the area to assume control of the board. That amounts to "taxation without representation," he said.

"That says it's a dictatorship," Bergemann said. "It's very clear. For six years, they don't have to ask anybody for any decisions. They can spend the money whereever they want. They can use the homeowners' money however they like."

Barbour and other PARC Group officials have defended their decision to seek the CDD designations as a matter of law and they've advertised and complied with all state requirements. 

"I'm not going to address the critics," Barbour said.

Despite some of the criticisms of the Nocatee CDD proposals, DiPietre said no complaints have been filed against the application at the governor's office.

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