Public Funds Could Soon Pay For A Private Community's Project

Residents of a local retirement community want the city to pick up the tab on repairs of a stormwater main pipe break from last summer, saying it’s at least partly the city’s responsibility because the water rushes in from city streets.

City staff members have said the broken pipe not only affects the deed-restricted community, it impacts neighborhoods and businesses near , an ages 55-plus community off of Patricia Avenue and south of Beltrees Street.

The goal is to get the repair completed before the rainy season begins in June.

Tonight, during a regularly scheduled meeting at 6:30 p.m., city commissioners will decide if they are willing to not only foot the majority of the bill for this community, but for other private property owners if a similar situation should arise in the future.

Commissioners must first approve an ordinance that allows the city to take over stormwater infrastructure on private property if the property owners willingly hand over a perpetual easement.

The proposal essentially allows the city to use its funds to support a private project, which is otherwise prohibited. The ordinance gets around helping out a private property owner by transferring some private infrastructure if it’s within the scope of the city’s master drainage plan, benefiting the city and possibly improving water quality.

“Without an easement in place, there is no mechanism by which the city or its contractors can access or replace private property with public funds,” City Manager Rob DiSpirito told commissioners on March 3 during the first reading and public hearing of the ordinance.

Under the plan, the city will pay 90 percent of the $69,574 repair, bringing the city’s portion to $62,957. The Skye Loch Villas Homeowners Association would reimburse the city with the other 10 percent at $6,957.

Commissioners will also have to declare that they will only take care of the necessary stormwater infrastructure, such as the pipes and manholes and not private retention ponds, weirs maintenance, dredging, bank erosion and the like. Then, if approved, they plan to award the lowest bidder – Keystone Excavators — the project contract to replace the Skye Loch Villas pipe.

The pipe, which collapsed last August, is a 48-inch section of twin corrugated metal that was part of the original stormwater infrastructure built for the 168-unit development in the 1960s and 1970s, DiSpirito told commissioners before their first vote. A previously-installed 284-foot-long, 42-inch undersized concrete pipe at the east end of the development will also be replaced.

“The replacement of these pipes prior to the arrival of our rainy season is essential to reduce the chances of upstream flooding and possible property damage,” he told commissioners before their initial vote.

The measure is expected to pass tonight during its final reading, but not unanimously. The first reading passed with a 4-1 roll-call vote. Commissioner Julie Scales cast the dissenting vote.

“Frankly, I think the lack of appropriate staffing for such a big change of policy is unfair to our citizens,” she said before that vote. “I believe that this ordinance is calling for us to increase our spending at a time of austerity and it’s calling for more government and our citizens are asking for less government.”

Vice Mayor David Carson said he agreed with Scales on one thing.

“This is a huge change in policy but I believe it’s the right change,” he said. “Stormwater is something people expect government to take care of, along with the streets and the sidewalks and law enforcement and fire.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting March 3, several Skye Loch Villas residents crowded into commission chambers in support of the vote.

“Not only for Skye Lock, it affects hundreds of businesses and homes east of us, so it’s affecting a lot of people,” said the homeowner association President Les Gilbert. “…So it’s very, very important.”

He said that 90 percent — when only 75 percent is required to pass a measure — of voting association members agreed to transfer the stormwater infrastructure over to the city.

When asked Wednesday, March 23, at his home, Gilbert declined to comment after telephoning the association attorney, who he said advised him against talking about the issue publicly until after tonight’s vote. Several attempts were made to speak with Skye Loch residents about their thoughts on the project, but all either declined comment or said they had no opinion.

If commissioners agree to take over the private stormwater system at , residents could see even more help in the future. DiSpirito told commissioners before the first vote that the city would next year consider constructing a Continuous Deflective Separation Unit, or CDS Unit, that better traps litter, sediment and other debris from flowing into the Skye Loch system. That project, he said, would be eligible for a Southwest Florida Water Management District matching grant in which the city would be responsible for 50 percent of the cost.