Beautification committee reviews rate study, landscaping contract and entrance renovations; insurance and irrigation discussed

City of Winter Springs staff told the Beautification Advisory Committee on an evening meeting that they will ask a consultant to complete a rate study to set a new maximum assessment (cap) for the community—landscaping assessment district and that crews will begin entrance landscaping work in June.

The study, which staff said will be performed by MBS, will model historical actuals, the draft 2026 budget and projected contract increases to recommend a new cap for the assessment district. Committee members were told the current legal cap is $63 per equivalent unit (EU), the district contains 967 EUs and annual revenue at the current charge is roughly $60,000. Staff said the cap-setting exercise does not itself change this year—s charge; the cap establishes the ceiling the city could assess in future years.

Committee members discussed near-term landscaping work that staff said would begin in June at Winter Springs Boulevard and Troutwood Boulevard, with two additional entrances targeted for completion by August. Staff described the work as regrading medians, trimming or shaving root flares where safe, replacing annual flower plantings with longer-lived materials and retrofitting irrigation where necessary. Staff said much of the increased grounds budget reflects planned irrigation inspections, mulch, irrigation repairs and plant replacements in addition to the base contract amount.

City staff also reviewed budget lines for the assessment fund: a utilities line budgeted at $12,000 with $5,800 spent year-to-date; a grounds budget shown at $47,000 with about $31,000 remaining after encumbrances; a signs-and-walls budget of $4,000 with no spending yet; and a contract/administration line budgeted at $21,000 with $16,000 encumbered to pay for the rate study consultant. Staff said the estimated ending fund balance is about $45,000. Those figures were provided in the meeting packet and discussed during the presentation.

On the topic of potential storm or vehicle damage to neighborhood walls, Brian Dettigan, director of administrative services and operations, told the committee that "trees are not insurable assets, anywhere in the city," and said tree cleanup after storms is typically paid from the city's storm reserve and may be eligible for FEMA reimbursement after a federally declared disaster. Dettigan also said the city carries a named-storm deductible calculated as a percentage of asset value; using the wall's insured value of $750,000 as an example, he said the named-storm deductible would be about $22,500 for a storm claim.

Committee members asked about the interplay between reserves, insurance deductibles and whether to file insurance claims for smaller sections of damage. Staff said the rate study will consider maintaining reserves adequate to address repairs up to deductible thresholds and that the city and the consultant would present projections for commissioners and homeowners before any change in the charge is adopted.

Staff described the landscaping contract as a citywide contract the district joined, and said the monthly cost for services at district locations rose from about $1,020 to $1,103 (an increase of roughly $83 per month). The contract term is three years with two one-year options. Staff said some savings were achieved by leveraging the citywide procurement.

The committee gave staff informal direction to provide the consultant the requested financial and operational data and accepted staff's plan to circulate the rate-study results by email when the study is complete. Staff estimated the city would return to the commission with a public-hearing item on a proposed new cap around the August commission meeting; that public hearing would follow the consultant—s report and required public-notice procedures.

Less technical questions raised by committee members included public-notice timing, the scope of median root work (staff said large structural roots would be left in place where feasible), whether the city would close roads during work (staff said there will be temporary closures and the city—s public information office will notify residents), and retrofit plans to convert pop-up spray irrigation to drip in planter boxes to reduce runoff and watering inefficiencies. Staff said the irrigation retrofit work is being included in the entrance renovations.

The committee did not take a formal vote to change rates at the meeting; staff described the session as advisory and said any change to the cap or to assessed amounts would proceed through the formal public-notice and commission public-hearing process.