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Council tables Milky Way Community Development District ordinance, asks for clearer ordinance text
Summary
During a public hearing on a proposed community development district (CDD) for the Milky Way development, the council voted to table the ordinance until the next regular meeting and asked city counsel to produce a cleaner, finalized draft for review.
The council held a public hearing on an ordinance (Ordinance 1001) to establish the Milky Way Community Development District under Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes. Petitioners’ counsel and the council’s attorney explained the purpose of a CDD: to allow a developer to finance infrastructure (stormwater, roads, water/sewer, landscape) via tax-exempt bonds and then, in many cases, turn facilities over to the city.
Why it mattered: Attorneys for the petitioner said CDDs permit assessments to be collected on the tax roll and that the district can finance construction via municipal bonds — mechanisms not available to homeowners’ associations. Petitioners noted that many maintenance responsibilities (for example, stormwater and common-area landscaping) would remain with the CDD after construction and that roads are typically transferred to the city only after construction is inspected and accepted.
Council concerns and action: Council members asked detailed questions about when and how roads and utilities would be accepted by the city, bonding and performance guarantees, whether the district could gate roads, and how long-term maintenance and potential impacts to the city would be handled. After receiving a late revised redline ordinance and noting typographical and substantive clarifications requested by city counsel, council voted 5-0 to table the ordinance and asked staff and the city attorney to return a clean, reworded draft for the next council meeting.
Next steps: City counsel will work with petitioner counsel to clean up the ordinance language, clarify performance bonds and acceptance procedures for roads and utilities, and return the revised ordinance to council at a future meeting. The petitioner is expected to provide additional materials requested by the city attorney prior to second reading.
