The Newberry City Commission approved the first reading to establish the Westone Community Development District at a regular meeting on Monday. If approved on second reading on Oct. 28, the Community Development District (CDD) would be the first in Newberry, for a development that does not yet exist. 

A CDD is a quasi-governmental entity that can issue bonds that help pay for infrastructure within the CDD area. The bonds, whose terms cannot exceed 30 years, are attached to the homes being built, so homebuyers pay monthly toward infrastructure improvements. If the original buyer sells the house to someone else, the remainder of the bond moves with the house. 

The Westone CDD petition was from the owners of a 237-acre property in Newberry, which was rezoned from Agricultural to Planned Rural Residential in 2023. 

The CDD comes with a board of supervisors with five members to oversee the budgeting of the CDD assessment. For the first five years, the board would be five people associated with the developer, M3 Development. After that, residents of the CDD would be able to vote in board members through a general election. 

The planned members for the initial Westone CDD board are David S. McDaniel, Peter McDaniel, Eleanor McDaniel, Caroline McDaniel and John A. Paccione. 

Wesley Haber, an attorney representing the property owners, said CDDs are an effective method to finance a development, opening access to the tax-exempt bond market, which ensures that the money is used only for capital infrastructure improvements. 

Haber told the commission that the home prices would likely not be affected by the choice to use a CDD, as the market dictates how much a lot costs, but the CDD also creates a mechanism to ensure not only the construction of capital infrastructure but also the maintenance, paid for by assessments that CDDs have the power to collect. 

“The cash efficiencies that a developer realizes by virtue of using a CDD often results in a nicer community for homeowners,” Haber told the board. 

Haber also assured the board that Florida statute prevents any CDD debts from being transferred to the city if something were to go wrong.  

Jean-Paul Perez, Newberry’s principal planner, said the application for a CDD requires a cost estimate, which was $32.6 million for this development. Perez said spreading that cost over 850 houses comes to roughly $38,000 per lot, which could cost homeowners about $106 per month for 30 years. 

Perez said Newberry staff and a lawyer reviewed the application and had no objections, and the Alachua County property appraiser has been notified. 

Newberry does not have an existing ordinance for establishing a CDD, so Perez said staff looked at the county’s ordinance for reference, and proposed the following conditions: 

• City has access to district resident complaints/violations 

• CDD transmits board candidate information to city before general election day 

• CDD transmits financial reporting information to city annually 

• CDD declaring default on bonds does not obligate the city to assume debt (already included in F.S. 190) 

Commissioners Ricky Coleman and Tony Mazon said they thought the CDD would have a positive effect on Newberry, helping to create a high-quality development. 

Commissioner Tim Marden said he was uncomfortable with the idea of a CDD, but said he would be willing to vote in favor if he needed to, to carry it to a second reading with all commissioners present. 

“I feel like we are sort of providing the power of government to a private entity that should be bearing the risk of what they’re trying to do in our capitalist system,” Marden said. “That’s where I’m having a conflict. Maybe it just needs to grow on me, and I need to do some more independent assessment of it.” 

Commissioner Mark Clark said he wanted to give the application a chance after staff has more time to research. 

 “We’ve got another bite of the apple,” Clark said. “Get some more homework, get some more information… we can always say no on the second round.” 

Coleman made a motion to approve the first reading of the application, seconded by Mazon. The motion passed 3-1, with Marden in dissent and Commissioner Monty Farnsworth absent. 

Veterans Memorial 

During the same meeting, the commission approved a $595,152 guaranteed maximum price (GMP) from Oelrich Construction for the Newberry Veterans Memorial monument. 

The monument is to be built at the southwest corner of Lois Forte Park, between the CSX railroad to the south side and NW 260th Street to the west, with a goal to be completed in time for Memorial Day 2025. 

According to meeting documents, community members identified the monument as an objective four years ago, wanting to honor members of every branch of the military. A group of residents led by Clark and former Newberry Commissioner/State Representative Debbie Boyd, created a conceptual and final design, selected the site location, and identified funding sources for the initially estimated $700,000 cost. 

The City Commission had authorized $350,000 from the county-wide Infrastructure Sales Tax to go toward funding the project, and the volunteer group launched a funding campaign that has raised $172,000 so far. 

Project management staff and Oelrich Construction performed a value engineering evaluation during their price development that saved about $100,000, and Oelrich offered to waive the construction manager fee for an in-kind contribution of $47,048. 

Currently, the project raised a total of $522,171 between community contributions and the sales tax allocation which leaves $91,300 left to raise to meet the $595,152 GMP. 

Staff recommended that the commission authorize an application for a legislative appropriation, completing the project ahead of Veterans Day 2025, but delaying final payments until after the appropriation has been approved or denied. 

Clark said the project was supposed to be done by Veterans Day 2024, and the legislative appropriation brought by Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, and State Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, was vetoed by the governor last time Newberry tried to get state funding for the project. 

Clark and Boyd said they had faith in the community, and that there were more people ready to donate to the cause. 

“I want to vote to keep it on track to at least get it done,” Clark said at the meeting. “I know the appropriations is one way of getting some money, but I think the community’s gonna back it close enough… I mean, it’s our thing.” 

Coleman made a motion to approve the GMP without the delay or submission for a legislative appropriation, and Mazon seconded it. The motion passed 3-1, with Marden dissenting, saying he did not like that Newberry was paying over $90,000 without an attempt at an appropriation.