Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The county’s relatively recent implementation of a program that provides a way for citizens of subdivisions to pay for the upgrades of their roads, as well as for other capital improvement projects to their neighborhoods, appears to be catching on.
The two latest areas to petition the commission for participation in the program are the residents of Red Fox Run, off Gamble Road in Commissioner Betsy Barfield’s district, and those of Vista Road, off the Waukeenah Highway in Commissioner J. T. Surles’ district. Both groups have indicated that they want their respective roads paved.
The first such project – after years of the neighborhood’s residents petitioning the Jefferson County Commission – was the paving of the road at the Valley View Estates Subdivision near the Leon County line, off U.S. 90.
This neighborhood’s insistent petitions, in fact, led to the commission’s adoption of the master ordinance that allows for the establishment of special districts and the imposition of the non ad-valorem special assessment.
Since the resurfacing of the Valley View Estates road earlier this year, two other private neighborhoods have taken advantage of the program. One was the Casa Bianca-Ridgeway subdivision off Old Lloyd Road, and the other was the Aucilla Shores subdivision off the Ashville Highway.
In the case of Casa Bianca-Ridgeway, the subdivision’s 28 property owners agreed to pay each $566 annually for a period of 10 years, until the county recoups the cost of the road paving, which is estimated to cost a little more than a million.
In the case of the Aucilla Shores subdivision, the affected property owners will pay between $157 and $31.31, depending on the size of the lot, for the maintenance of a portion of the development’s many roads. The latter maintenance will include road grading, plus clearing and restoring the ditches.
The residents of these subdivisions will pay via an annual non ad-valorem special assessment, the amount of which a study calculated per parcel.
The county’s authority for imposition of the special assessment derives from a master ordinance that the commission approved in 2020. Among other
things, the ordinance sets the mechanism for the creation of assessment areas and authorizes the board to impose the special non ad-valorem assessments to fund capital and services projects in specified areas.
The way the process works is that residents of private subdivisions that express an interest in participating in the program are canvassed individually to determine their willingness to participate and pay the assessment.
A study then follows to determine the exact cost of the project and how much of the cost will be apportioned to each landowner who benefits from the improvement.
A system is next set up for the collection of the annual special assessment via the tax collector’s office and it is then imposed on the residents by resolution.
The reason for the assessment is that private subdivisions are not entitled to the use of public funds for the upgrade or upkeep of their roadways or other capital improvements.