Commercial property owners will pay by the square
foot. Avenir includes roughly 2 million square feet of commercial
space.
Representatives of the developers have said
there’s an upfront savings and a long-term benefit to having
professionally managed infrastructure. There are more than 600 of
the development districts in Florida. Old Palm, Evergrene and Palm
Beach Country Estates were also developed with special taxing
districts, Planner Ken Tuma said.
“There are many communities that have this non-ad valorem tax
service,” Tuma said.
The special taxing district, known as a community development
district, allows developers to issue tax-exempt bonds to build and
maintain infrastructure. The money from the community development
district pays for roads, drainage, water distribution, recreation,
common area landscaping and conservation.
The developers pay the fees themselves until buyers take over their
homes or commercial properties. By Florida law, each contract for
the initial sale of residential property must disclose the tax in
bold, conspicuous type immediately before the signature line.
A board of five elected supervisors will oversee the district. They
must operate according to the Sunshine Law, just as other local
governments do.
The supervisors will initially be principals of Avenir Holdings.
Control of the board will begin to transfer to property owners when
the district is in its sixth year and at least 250 qualified voters
live there. |