BRADENTON — At Tuesday's Manatee County Commission meeting, members passed Ordinance No. 15-12 and Ordinance No. 15-13, establishing Wildcat Preserve CDD and Buckhead Trails CDD. Both are Carlos Beruff properties.

The state comprehensive plan provides a policy in Section 187.201 (20)(b)2, Florida Statutes, regarding governmental efficiency that allows districts such as these CDDs.

Community Development Districts serve a governmental and public purpose by financing, providing and managing certain basic infrastructure systems, facilities and services.

CDDs address only factors material to managing and financing the facilities and service delivery functions of the District.

The land to be served by the Wildcat Preserve District comprises approximately 89.72 acres and is located north of Golf Course Road and east of Fort Hamer Road in the Parrish area of Manatee County.

The land to be served by the Buckhead Trails District comprises approximately 204.64 acres and is located north of Buckeye Road and a half mile east of I-75, also in the Parrish area.

Beruff has also recently applied and received a Community Development District approval for his Long Bar Pointe project.

Titled Aqua One Community Development District, it is comprised of 61.53 acres on El Conquistador Parkway and north Sarasota Bay. 

These CDDs are, in reality, 'Special Tax Districts' designed to defray development costs. Beruff appears to be increasingly making them strategic components in many of his projects.

How the bottom line for the county and the developer will play out, has yet to be seen. Certainly, the county's dilatory rewrite of the Land Development Codes and the prolonged decision to make impact fees equitable, have already dished out heavy bounties to developers who have arguably been gaming the county's Comprehensive Plan. 

County Commissioners approved both ordinances unanimously at Tuesday's meeting. 

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Guest Editorial: Are CDDs a Hidden Way to Tax Homebuyers and Pad Profits?