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Residents say they were annexed without notice; city says Crosswinds matter will return for review
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Summary
Multiple residents told the commission they learned they were annexed into Dade City without consent and sought guidance; city staff said the Crosswinds annexation and comprehensive-plan designation remain unresolved and will return to the commission with supporting documents and a timeline.
Several residents told the Dade City Commission they discovered their properties had been annexed into the city without their knowledge and asked for clarification and remedies.
Venita Escalante said she recently learned her property at 10941 Jim Jordan Road had been annexed and that she had not received notice or signed any documents. “I paid in on the property taxes a lot more than I should have,” she told the commission, adding she does not want city water service and wants the annexation reviewed.
Joanne Glavich, who said she has retained an attorney about an annexation issue in the Crosswinds area, told the commission she has struggled to get timely information from city staff and is seeking an approximate timeline for resolution. City Attorney Kevin Bracken said he has spoken with Glavich’s counsel and described Crosswinds as a distinct, ongoing matter involving comprehensive-plan designation and zoning.
Bracken told the commission the Crosswinds matter “has not come back before you all” and that staff is still awaiting needed documents from the applicant. He said staff, including planning staff, will be meeting with the applicant and expects the matter to come before the commission in the next 60 days. Bracken added that the annexation ordinance at issue became final 30 days after the commission passed it in 2021, and that the time to challenge that finality was within 30 days of adoption; he said counsel had asked him to waive statute-of-limitations concerns for the past four years but he declined to do so without direction from the commission.
City Manager Marica Van Ervin and planning staff said they would reach back out to the applicant and the residents’ counsel, update the commission and the affected residents, and provide legal and procedural context when Crosswinds returns to the agenda.
Clarifying detail: the Crosswinds matter involves both comprehensive-plan designation (legislative) and zoning (quasi-judicial) components; staff said some owner authorizations and affidavits were missing from initial files and have since been supplemented, and staff and counsel are reviewing those materials.
Next steps: staff to meet with the applicant and counsel; planning and legal staff to prepare a complete record and bring Crosswinds and related annexation issues back to the commission for consideration.