Buckeye boards approve special-assessment districts for Florio at TerraValle and Westpark, move forward on $5.4 million Westpark GO bonds

The Community Facilities District boards for the City of Buckeye unanimously approved June 17, 2025, formation and financing actions for two special-assessment districts — Florio at TerraValle and Westpark — and authorized the process to issue up to $5,400,000 in general-obligation bonds for Westpark.

The measures will let the city reimburse developers for public infrastructure already installed in those subdivisions and place annual special-assessment payments as a line item on affected property tax bills collected by Maricopa County.

Larry Price, the city’s special districts manager, told the boards that the Florio at TerraValle assessment district would support the sale of assessment district revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed $10,970,000 and that roughly 97 lots in the district are estimated to carry a $10,000 special-assessment lien each. "These special assessment liens can be paid at any time depending on what [a] property owner desires to do," Price said. He added that initial homeowners are required by statute to be notified in writing and to sign that they understand the property is in a special-assessment district, but sellers are not separately required to notify buyers; instead, the lien typically appears on title reports during a transfer.

For Westpark, Price said the planned assessment on lots is lower: roughly a $3,500 lien on each of about 446 lots to partially reimburse the developer for water, sewer, streets and other improvements. Those assessment bonds are typically 20-year issues and are collected with property taxes. Price said the market for special-assessment bonds is currently being estimated around a 6% interest rate.

Separately, Bill Coppi, a staff member who presented the Westpark general-obligation (GO) bond proposal, said the board considered and reduced an initial request from roughly $8 million to $5.4 million after discussions with attorneys, developers and underwriters. Coppi said the Westpark GO bonds are expected to carry a 20-year term at the current roughly 5% rate and that proceeds would fund construction of the West Park Loop Road, about 6,700 linear feet. "We started actually at $8,000,000... and we reached $5,400,000 is where we ended up," Coppi said. He and the underwriters anticipate a closing later in the fall.

Coppi also walked through the tax-rate implications the board will notify affected residents about: the debt-service levy for the geo bonds was estimated to rise from about $2.83 to about $3.35, and when combined with a 30¢ operations and maintenance fee the combined levy would be about $3.65 compared with about $3.13 previously — roughly a 16.4% increase. Using a median home price of about $176,000 to $177,000 in city comparisons, Coppi estimated the change would equal about a $91 annual increase for a home at that value.

City staff said they conducted outreach in the Westpark neighborhood by mailing individual letters to each resident in the community and posting information on open web platforms; staff reported receiving a single contact asking when the meeting was scheduled and that staff followed up. "We sent individual letters, mailed letters to each one of the residents in West Park," a staff member identified as Wyatt said. "We only received contact from one person, and they were just simply asking when the meeting was."

All three public hearings on the feasibility reports and bond actions drew no speaker cards and no public speakers. After the hearings, board members moved and seconded approval motions for each item; the boards recorded unanimous approval on the Florio assessment district, the Westpark assessment district, acceptance of the Westpark feasibility report and declaration of intention to issue GO bonds under Title 48, Chapter 4, Article 6 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, and the related bond-issuance resolution delegating authority to complete sale and closing steps.

The approvals allow city staff and bond counsel to proceed with underwriting, finalizing documents and scheduling closings. Coppi said issuance timing will depend on market conditions and the underwriters' schedule; he suggested a closing in September or October. No board member asked for additional conditions or delayed implementation during the meeting.

The items are part of a broader set of development financing requests the city expects this fiscal year: staff said three special-assessment districts are coming before the board in fiscal 2025–26, including Florio at TerraValle, Westpark and Festo Ranch. The city also noted that some neighborhoods have prior CF district actions (Sundance and Westpark earlier) and that the process for GO bonds in already-occupied districts now includes formal presentations and resident outreach.

What’s next: staff will complete required legal notices, finalize bond documents with underwriters and bond counsel, and return to the board with closing documents and a final official statement when the city is ready to sell the Westpark GO bonds. No dates for final sale were set at the meeting.