A Gated Community At Last? 

A long-running saga at Heritage Isles has come to an end after more than 20 years and repeated efforts by many residents to activate the entrance gates at the front of their community.

Heritage Isles residents voted in favor of asking the City of Tampa to transfer ownership of the community’s roads to its Community Development District (CDD), which will lead to the security gates once again becoming functional.

The resolution needed two-thirds, or 66 percent of the homeowners who voted, to pass; it got 77 percent “yes” votes.

“The vote cemented what the residents want, which I feel really good about,” said CDD chairman Dan Barravecchio, who spearheaded the effort. “This was really about being able to take care of our own assets…and we can maintain a higher standard for our roads (than what the city can provide).”

The resolution is now in the hands of the City of Tampa which, after conducting its due diligence, will vote on it sometime in the coming months.

If it passes, which appears likely, the Heritage Isles CDD intends to install a new system to put the gates at its Grand Isle Dr. and Sandy Point Dr. entrances off of Cross Creek Blvd. back in working order for the first time since 2003.

The gates haven’t been used because the developer, Lennar Homes, conveyed the Heritage Isles infrastructure to the City of Tampa, which said that made the eight miles of roads within the community public. 

The city prohibited the gate attendant from denying entry to any vehicle, requiring “unimpeded access” to vehicles turning off of Cross Creek Blvd. into Heritage Isles.

The CDD decided to eliminate the guard service, for which it was paying $77,000 a year, and the gatehouse has remained vacant ever since.

“If we couldn’t secure the gate, and we couldn’t check identifications, then why were we paying $77,000 a year for someone that couldn’t do anything but flip a switch?,” Barravecchio asked.

Multiple attempts to get control of the community’s roads were denied. There was no legal mechanism in place to transfer the roads to a CDD, only to a homeowners association (HOA), and that required a 100% vote by homeowners.

According to Barravecchio, the city also was hesitant, due to the community’s outstanding bond debt.

Once that debt was paid off early in 2019, the CDD and its lawyers set out to have a state law written that allowed the conveyance of the roads in a community to a CDD with a 66% vote, as opposed to the 100% vote required by Tampa just to transfer it to an HOA.

“You had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting 100 percent,” says Mark Vega, the CDD district manager since 2014. In fact, Vega said he could only remember one case more than a decade ago where a community succeeded with a 100% vote, and it was actually two cases — the Huntington (42 homes) and Westover (61) villages in Tampa Palms. 

Heritage Isles hired a lobbyist and began the work of having the law crafted. Piggybacking on House Bill 57, a transportation bill, Heritage Isles was able to get Senate Bill 1194 included, which authorized “governing bodies of municipalities and counties to abandon and convey their interests in certain roads and rights-of-way dedicated in a recorded residential subdivision plat to community development districts under specified conditions.”

It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 29 of last year.

“This is groundbreaking, this is pioneer stuff,” Vegas says. “I already know of two CDDs that are excited to jump on the bandwagon, but this (Heritage Isles) is a first for the state of Florida.”

The CDD rallied support within Heritage Isles for the vote, which was held on March 18. Of the 1,020 homeowners in Heritage Isles, a total of 373 voted, with 286 voting “yes” for the community to gain ownership of its roads.

The CDD held a number of community meetings to explain their plans, conducted all the required road studies and has stockpiled more than $650,000 in its reserve funds for future road work.

Once the city approves the transfer, Heritage Isles plans to install a state-of-the-art virtual guard system at its two entrance/exit kiosks, similar to the one used by the Live Oak Preserve community off Bruce B. Downs Blvd., hopefully bringing the gate saga to an official end.

Vega says a lot of homeowners in Heritage Isles “were misled” into thinking they were buying into a gated community. Now, Heritage Isles finally can deliver on that promise.

“There isn’t a year that has gone by that the gate issue hasn’t come up,” says Barravecchio, who has lived in Heritage Isles since 2002 and has been on the CDD board since 2005. He says the effort was fueled by many of the early residents.

“The more long-time residents, they felt it was something that was taken away from them, so they had a much more personal interest in having it restored,” he says. “Those are the people that when they drive down my block and I’m out washing my car, they stop and say ‘Thank you.’”

Get On The Guest List Now To Celebrate My 25 Years Of Neighborhood News!

So, even though I’ve also had a lot of haters over the 25 years I have owned and been the editor of the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, the fact is that I get the most amazing feedback from all of you — our readers — about what we do to bring our communities together.

A case in point is our now-finalized plan to celebrate my 25 years at the helm of the primary news and information source for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents and businesses. Even though we didn’t (at that time) yet know when the celebration would be held, we’ve still have at least 60 people register to be part of that celebration — and another 30 or so of our advertising business owners who say they plan to attend.

So, let’s see how many of you will register to be on our guest list now that we are officially announcing the details of that little shindig.

Although my 25-year anniversary was actually February 25 of this year, the celebration will be held on Friday, April 12, at the awesome Bayscape Bistro at Heritage Isles Country Club (off Cross Creek Blvd.), with heavy hors d’oeuvres being put out at around 6 p.m. and karaoke with my friend Gary Carmichael of Heart & Soul Karaoke kicking the musical festivities into high gear by 7 p.m.

The food will be outstanding, as Bayscape owners Eddie and Lourdes Bujarski (who ran the culinary arts program at New Tampa’s Wharton High for nearly two decades) will put out everything from fruit and cheese to some of Bayscape’s Friday Fiesta fare like tacos, fajitas and more. We’re still working on an exact menu (and Bayscape’s complete menu will still be available for purchase) and the bar will be a cash bar, but this is a unique opportunity to hang out with not only my amazing staff at the Neighborhood News, but also the owners of many of the businesses you see advertised in every issue of this publication.     

So, all you have to do to be part of the celebration is email us from a valid email address with your first and last name, the community you live in (Tampa Palms, Live Oak Preserve, etc.) and the first and last names of any other people you plan to bring with you.

There is no admission fee to attend my “25 years of Neighborhood News” celebration, but you’re not officially on the guest list until you receive a confirmation email from us. If you want to get an idea of how crazy Jannah and I and some of our friends are about karaoke, check out my article on page 44 of our latest New Tampa issue. 

And no, you don’t have grab a mic to sing at all to attend, but you do have to email us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com and put “Neighborhood News Guest List” in the subject line! See you there!

The Latest On Google…

It’s been almost exactly two months since we were among only 23 news organizations in the U.S. and 87 worldwide to receive funding support from Google — and lead video producer Gavin Olsen, our new in-house videographer/video editor Charmaine George and managing editor John Cotey and I are all pretty excited  about how things are going. As you’re receiving this issue, you have the opportunity to watch a new “Neighborhood Dining News” segment with owner Steve Falabella of 900° Woodfired Pizza at the Shops at Wiregrass mall, our second “Chappie Chatter” segment with Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page administrator Jennifer Ames and even a new video about Liberty Middle School’s human hot fudge sundae.

Many of our latest videos have done very well for us, both on Facebook and on our WCNT-tv (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa television) YouTube channel.

Of the videos that we have released since my last update in these pages, our video about the new Twistee Treat in Wesley Chapel has been viewed 8,500 times, our story about the Pasco County School District’s planned purchase of property for a new school in Wesley Chapel has been viewed 5,600 times and our video about Wharton’s boys basketball team defeating the Freedom boys in the Regional playoffs has been viewed 4,600 times.

And, although I wasn’t available to go myself, Gavin and I were invited to travel to New York City to be part of a global conference call among all of the news organizations who received funding from Google. He surely will report about that conference in our next issue.

And, by the time this issue reaches your mailbox, most of our existing print advertisers and many people who have requested information about our video and online subscriptions will have received that information. 

So, if you’re interested in having a Featured Business video produced about your business, or you’re interested in the only truly multimedia advertising opportunity for businesses in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, please email us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com ASAP!

And, look for more info in these pages about our soon-to-launch new website — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net! 

2nd 'Trick's Kicks' Tourney Nets nearly $11K!

KICK2Kingshyre at Cross Creek residents Dick & Kathy Strom, who lost their son Patrick to a single-vehicle accident a little more than three years ago, are proud to report that the second annual “Trick’s Kicks” golf outing at Heritage Isles Country Club on Oct. 17 raised about $10,800.

Dick says that amount is about $3,500 more than last year, which will buy, “a lot of sneakers for a lot of needy kids in our area.”

Trick’s Kicks is a nonprofit organization started by the Stroms and their friends in honor of Patrick (who was called “Trick” for short), who loved to collect athletic shoes (“kicks”). Since starting the organization, Trick’s Kicks has donated dozens of pairs of sneakers to kids in need, including 35 pairs donated to the kids at the Everyday Blessings orphanage in Thonotosassa.

Dick says that a full field of golfers, increased sponsorships and promotion in the Neighborhood News all helped the second tourney beat last year’s total, and he says the hope is that “we can do even better again next year.”

Food was provided for the event by Hoosier’s Gille, the restaurant located inside Heritage Isles CC. Among the prizes given away was a 55-inch flat-screen TV, which was won by Kyle Taylor, the last entrant in the event’s putting contest and the only contestant to sink the 60-footer.

For more info, visit Facebook.com/Trick’s Kicks.