Historic Subdivision Improvements will be on Feb. 19th BOCC Agenda

{sidebar id=1}This will be the first item discussed under general items on Tuesday, Feb 19th. Our meetings begin at 6 PM. This item will be discussed around 6:15 PM. I am encouraging everyone who lives in one of these areas, knows anyone who lives in one of these subdivisions, is in the construction industry, is in a housing support industry to attend this meeting. I highly encourage you to arrive early. At the Saturday morning, 9 AM meeting I recently held with residents of these subdivisions, there were well over 140 citizens in attendance. We need these citizens and others to attend this meeting to demand the Board of County Commissioners address and correct these long-lasting and worsening problems.

Thank you for allowing me to serve!

Ed Brimner
Chairman, Wakulla County Commission (District III)

(850) 251-8709 (Cell)
(850) 926-0919 (Office)
(850) 926-0940 (FAX)

Board of County Commissioners
Agenda Request

Subject: Historic Subdivision Improvements

Statement of Issue:

There are several old, historic subdivisions that desperately need upgrades to improve our citizen’s Quality of Life, property values, and livability of Wakulla County.

Background:

For the last 3 years the majority of this board has talked about needed community upgrades to Greiners Addition, Magnolia Gardens, Wakulla Gardens, and Lake Ellen Estates. No one disagrees these neighborhoods need upgrades. Due to costs, we have not been able to make the upgrades we agree we need to make. I believe there is a way to make these improvements without impacting our budget. Improvements are possible without assessments. We can improve them all! We can improve them now! And we can improve them right!

These neighborhoods do not belong to a developer, they belong to Wakulla County. Problems in these neighborhoods are not caused by developers; they were allowed to happen because of past BOCC decisions. Wakulla County needs to address and correct these problems. We can correct them all! We can correct them now! And we can correct them right!

This can be done with—with no new taxes! We can do them all! We can do them now! We can do them right!"

Analysis:

Housing in our historic subdivisions experienced a spurt of growth in the last 5 years and are now experiencing a reduction in prices and sales. This is caused by at least two reasons. First, housing sales have slowed overall. Second, and maybe more important, as housing has increased in these old subdivisions, infrastructure cannot handle the increase use and is getting worse and worse and the standard of living is decreasing due to unpaved roads, crowded conditions with no parks or ways to walk or use the outdoors. Wakulla County needs to correct the problems in these neighborhoods. We need to do them all! We need to do them now! We need to do them right!

Wakulla County has lots of people who are underemployed or not working due to a statewide housing recession. However, the only bright spot in Florida is the Tallahassee area. Tallahassee has a shortage of homes priced below $200,000. If we correct the problems in these neighborhoods, we could provide homes for the people needing nice homes in nice neighborhoods at a price they can afford. Our citizens would be employed building these homes. Our businesses would thrive selling to the builders and new residents. Our tax base would grow so we could afford to continue the services our citizens want and deserve. We can afford to correct them all! We can afford to do them now! We can afford to do them right!

To proceed with this or any major upgrade, we need to have much more information. Questions such as:

    * What are the procedures to implement zoning overlays or TIFs?
    * Estimate of infrastructure costs?
    * Recommendations for planning/consulting and cost estimates for services?
    * What are the payback expectation?

Recommendation:

Authorize staff to hire an expert to brief this board and our citizens on the details of Tax Increment Financing and what this board will need to do to begin the process of upgrading our most needy old subdivisions. We cannot afford to delay any longer!

This information originally published on February 8, 2008.

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