Governor approves special district to manage massive Clear Springs development in Bartow

Gary White, The Ledger
·7 min read
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill created the Clear Springs Stewardship District, a special district that will oversee the development of a massive 17,500-acre property stretching in a horseshoe pattern around the east and south ends of Bartow. The district will have much of the powers of an additional government, including the ability to assess fees to landowners.

There will soon be a new government in Polk County.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday to create the Clear Springs Stewardship District, a special entity within the boundaries of Bartow.

A stewardship district is an independent local governmental authority with the power to impose assessment fees to raise money for the building of roads and other infrastructure. It is similar to a community development district, a more common entity, but has greater authority and requires legislative action to be created, unlike a CDD, which only needs the approval of a local government.

Stewardship districts are formed when a long period of planning and development is anticipated before the project is completed. Examples include Lakewood Ranch in Manatee and Sarasota counties, Ave Maria in Collier County and Sunbridge in Osceola County.

Bartow City Attorney Sean Parker said a stewardship district is like a CDD “on steroids.”

The Clear Springs Stewardship District covers about 17,500 acres, according to the bill text. Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, and Rep. Sam Killebrew, R-Winter Haven, co-sponsored the bill (HB 1611), which passed unanimously in both houses of the Florida Legislature. The action takes effect Oct. 1.

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The property is owned by the Clear Springs Companies and encompasses land mostly reclaimed from phosphate mining, stretching in a horseshoe shape around the east and south edges of Bartow. A full 66 pages of the bill are devoted to legal descriptions of the district’s boundaries.

The late Stanford Phelps, a Connecticut financier, bought the land in 1999 for $8.2 million, The Ledger previously reported. Phelps had the land annexed into Bartow and drafted plans in the early 2000s to develop about one-third of the land into neighborhoods, but the project stalled following the 2008 economic crash.

The Clear Springs Companies, headed by Phelps, turned part of the property into a blueberry farm that still operates. Phelps also donated a parcel along State Road 60 to Polk State College, which built the Clear Springs Advanced Technology Center.

Patrick Carroll, vice president of Clear Springs, said company officials decided that seeking a stewardship district would be preferable to a process that would have involved forming multiple CDDs.

“What we chose to do was reduce the layers of government, which I think is his key reason why we chose to do it, and decrease the public expense and administrative costs of having multiple special purpose units of government for really a bigger project,” Carroll said. “Obviously, going through the Legislature is a much more challenging and time-consuming and expensive project for the developer on the front end, but we really thought it was in the best interest of everybody to do that.”

Bartow Mayor Steve Githens said the city has coordinated with Clear Springs and supported the formation of the stewardship district. Parker said Bartow approved the draft language last fall and provided a transmittal letter to the Legislature expressing approval of the proposed district.

Bill cites scale of project

The 158-page bill states that the district is needed to provide a comprehensive approach to community development. The bill cites the size of the property and the expected duration of development, saying that creating multiple CDDs “would result in an inefficient, duplicative, and needless proliferation of local special purpose governments, contrary to the public interest” and past legislative findings.

“The creation of a single district will assist in integrating the management of state resources and allow for greater and more coordinated stewardship of natural resources,” the bill says.

The bill seeks to promote “a diverse mix of housing and regional employment and economic development opportunities, rather than fragmented development with underutilized infrastructure generally associated with urban sprawl.”

The legislation specifies that the district will create a governing board with five members who will serve four-year terms. Owners of land in the district will vote in a first election to be held within 90 days of the law taking effect. They will be given one vote for every acre of land they own.

All board meetings will be open to the public and subject to Florida’s Sunshine laws.

Places on the board will be designated for residents of the district as its population grows, with all five members being residents when the population reaches 23,000.

The board is expected to hire a district manager, who will be responsible for supervising construction and other activities in the district.

The board will have the authority to impose special assessments on property owners to generate funding for infrastructure. At present, all the land is owned by Clear Springs, but those assessments would eventually be made on homes and other private properties in the district.

Plenty of powers

Like any other government entity, the district will be able to borrow money, pursue grants and issue bonds to cover the cost of projects. It will also have the same power of eminent domain as county governments. The phrase applies to the taking of private property for a public use, with compensation provided to the land owner.

The district’s leadership will not be able to engage in comprehensive planning, zoning or permitting, and the district must comply with Bartow’s comprehensive plan.

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Among the special powers granted in the legislation, the district may engage in water management and control, including the operation of irrigation and sewer systems and related facilities.

The district may build bridges, culverts, wildlife corridors or road crossings across public highways, canals and other water bodies. The bill also grants the authority to “provide school buildings and related structures, which may be leased, sold, or donated to the school district.”

“I think they liked the fact that it provides lots of flexibility when it comes to not just putting in a road but putting in recreational features,” Parker said. “Because with their property, a lot of it is close to the Peace River, and they have a big, big vision for how to incorporate the river access and the river proximity into their neighborhoods. I think it just kind of puts more tools in the toolbox.”

Clear Springs’ long-term plans call for 11,000 residential units, approximately 22 million square feet of industrial space and 7 million square feet of commercial space, Carroll said. The developer has pledged to set aside large tracts for conservation, he said.

One of the main entrances to the development will be on SR 60 near the planned terminus of the Central Polk Parkway, a spur toll road that will branch south from the Polk Parkway.

All that development will create new demands for water. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has estimated that the limit for withdrawals from the Upper Floridan Aquifer in the region will be reached by 2025.

Bartow is currently extracting about 3.1 million gallons per day, well below the 7.9 million gallons per day the city is permitted, said Susanna Martinez Tarokh, a spokesperson for the water district.

Bartow is a member of the Polk Regional Water Cooperative, which is pursuing alternative supplies of water. The group has commissioned the drilling of wells into the lower aquifer near Babson Park, with plans to pump the water through pipes to systems throughout the county. The process will require intensive filtration because water in the lower aquifer contains higher levels of salt and minerals than that in the upper section.

The water district held a pre-application meeting with Clear Springs representatives last year on a proposed 1,875-acre development and issued a determination in September that set limits for wetland and other surface waters, Tarokh said.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: District formed to oversee development of 17,500-acre site in Bartow