Having roads turned over to the county.

My HOA is currently in the process of trying to impose a special assessment in order to repair the roads in our development. Currently the roads are owned and maintained by the HOA. I believe it to be the ultimate goal to have the roads turned over to the county. Has anyone else gone thru this process in the state of FL? I understand it will be a costly process, but I am not confident that the board has explored all options. This is the breakdown of the assessment and how it will be used.

 The HOA needs $179,200 over the next 12 years to repair or replace community assets
 Projects will be funded in 2 stages
 Stage 1 is the road resurface in the fall 2015 and sidewalk repair in fall of 2016 – total cost $77,000
 Stage 1 Funds will come from HOA reserve $19,000, 2014 budget $6,000 and a special assessment of $52,000.
 The special assessment comes out to $396/owner and will be collected over 2 years with monthly and quarterly payment plans.  Stage 2 – years 3-12 require another $102,000 which includes another $58,000 for roads in year 12.
 Stage 2 will be funded either by Annual assessments or through the Reserve process.
 Owners will vote on whether to use the Reserve process in the fall of 2015.
 12 Year Project List: Roads - $58,000 X2, Sidewalks - $19,000, Fountains (3) - $13,200, Entrance sign - $3,000, Fence - $10,000, Well pump – $4,000, Irrigation - $4,000, Gutter repair- $5,000, Entrance lighting - $5,000

There are a few reasons that I am not confident in the board.
1. We have some issues with our sidewalks where, when installed in front of homes the contractors did not pour one section to the same width as the other. In other sections sidewalks were not poured all together.
2. We had some repairs done to our roads about 5 years ago, in preparation to have them transferred to the county and the transfer never took place.
3. It takes the board a very long time to make a decision and move forward with anything they try to implement.

Here are some of my thoughts that I was going to bring up at the next meeting.
1. Have an Attorney handle the transition to the county vs. unexperienced board members.
2. I feel that the board should show the home owners that they can actually complete a small project such as repairing the sidewalks, before asking homeowners for more money.
3. Could we negotiate with the county to pay them to do the repairs, then take over the roads? The county has the ability to do any repairs that are needed.

I have lived in this development for 10 years and I have seen no change in the neighborhood at all. The first 5 years the HOA was non-existent. Since it began operation our costs have only gone up. And within the last 2-3 years the board has hired a management company. The homes look the same, the yards look the same and no real improvements have taken place. I don't mind paying my fair share to repair the roads if needed. But I guess I need proof that they can get the job done before I feel comfortable handing them any more money.

Current annual dues are about 375.00, we have 3 ponds(with fountains), an entrance, lighting at the entrance, and a very small common grounds area. There are roughly 130 homes. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I also want to add that having your streets considered "Public" isn't all that it is cracked up to be. We did it because of a separating water meter issues. This meant we could no longer have our homemade street signs. We had to have street signs installed. Which if you have a no parking area can really make the area look "Junky" full of no parking signs every 50 feet. We had to go to the city and make an ordinance to paint our curbs red to avoid putting up street signs that are a lawn care nightmare as well.

Your still paying for these streets but through your county/city taxes. It's not a "free ride". You also lose the ability to impose any of your HOA rules. Instead you have to incorporate the county laws for public streets. No more towing but havingto call the police to have them deal with issues.

Not saying it was not an overall good thing to turnover our roads but we did have to change our CC&R's to reflect roads were now public. Which cost us money. I would do it again but learned a few lessons that private streets were not all that bad.

Mark,

Another option for convincing the County to accept the roads would be that they create a special tax district to pay for the cost of accepting the roads. This is often done to have the County/City accept roads.