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Holiday City Council approves Arbor Lane right-of-way vacation and creates local building authority
Summary
The council unanimously approved Ordinance 2025-16 to vacate part of the Arbor Lane right-of-way and passed Resolution 2025-23 to create a local building authority that will allow asset-backed bond financing for seismic upgrades to city hall and a park at the Spring Lane Elementary property.
Holiday City Council approved two formal measures during its regular meeting on Sept. 11, voting to vacate a portion of the Arbor Lane right-of-way and to create a local building authority to finance capital projects.
On Ordinance 2025-16, the council took a roll-call vote after a brief introduction of the item. Mayor Pro Tem (speaker 2) moved to approve the ordinance; it was seconded by speaker 6 and passed with council members Brewer, Durham, Fotheringham, Quinn and the chair voting yes.
The council then considered Resolution 2025-23, which would establish a local building authority and allow the city to issue bonds using leasehold interests in municipal assets rather than pledging sales or property tax revenues. Financial advisers and bond counsel briefed the council on the structure and risks of the approach. The advisers described the building authority as an entity that holds assets and leases them to the city; the city’s annual payments to the authority would service bondholders. Bond counsel characterized the security as “a leasehold pledge” rather than a traditional lien on tax revenues, and said that in a default scenario a trustee would likely sublease the property to recover payments rather than conducting a typical foreclosure sale.
Council member (speaker 6) moved to approve the resolution; the motion was seconded by speaker 12 and the resolution passed by unanimous vote.
Why it matters: The building authority mechanism gives the city flexibility to finance seismically upgrading city hall and to build a new park on the Spring Lane Elementary property without pledging sales- or property-tax streams, though advisers said that approach typically carries a slightly higher interest rate because repayment is subject to annual appropriation. The resolution authorizes staff to proceed with the legal and financing steps needed to create the authority; separate bond issuance decisions and project-specific approvals will follow.
Next steps: Staff and bond counsel will complete the authority’s legal documents and present bond-issuance details for future council action; project design and procurement for the seismic upgrades and park will proceed as funding plans are finalized.
