Newberry City Commission votes to issue bonds for new City Hall, moves NC Ranch and Highland Park developments forward, begins process of converting Newberry Elementary to a charter

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

NEWBERRY, Fla. – At a May 28 Special Meeting, the Newberry City Commission voted to issue up to $6.29 million in capital improvement bonds for a new City Hall and approved zoning changes for the NC Ranch planned development and plans for both the commercial and residential portions of the Highland Park planned development. At the end of the meeting, they heard an update on the process of converting Newberry Elementary School to Newberry’s first public charter school.

Capital improvement bonds

Assistant City Manager Dallas Lee introduced a resolution to authorize the issuance of capital improvement bonds by the City of Newberry, not to exceed $6.29 million in total. These funds will be used to help pay for the new $8.5 million City Hall building. Lee said the bonds will be repaid over 30 years, with interest payments beginning next March and principal payments beginning in September 2025. He said they originally thought they would have to pay an interest rate of 5.5%, but thanks to changes in the economy, that rate should be about 4.72%; the reduction in the interest rate should save the City over $1 million. 

Jeremy Niedfeldt of PFM, the City’s financial advisor, continued the presentation. He said the useful life of the building is well beyond the 30-year repayment period for the bonds. Niedfeldt said the City has a Moody’s bond credit rating of Aa3, which is a very high quality rating and means the debt will not have to be insured. He said the City’s annual payments to the bondholders will average around $414,000, totaling about $12.4 million. Niedfeldt said he recommends the City utilize a competitive bidding approach for issuing the bonds, and that will take place on June 11, with closing by the end of June.

Lee returned to the podium and said the recommended action is to pass the ordinance and authorize the issuance of the bonds. Commissioner Tim Marden asked whether it might be better to allow interest rates to decrease more before proceeding. Niedfeldt said they could always refinance the bonds, but that incurs additional costs, “so unless you’re getting significant savings outside of those fees, you wouldn’t do a refinancing.”

Mayor Jordan Marlowe asked whether all or some of the impact fees for public buildings will be used to repay the debt. Lee said that each year, about 60 to 70 percent of the impact fees will be used to repay the debt; money will be left over for other projects – about $2 million total by 2040, according to projections.

Commissioner Marden made a motion to approve the resolution, and Commissioner Tony Mazon seconded the motion. No members of the public wished to speak, and there was no further discussion. The motion passed 4-1, with Commissioner Mark Clark in dissent.

Rezoning for NC Ranch Planned Development

The next item was the second reading of a rezoning ordinance for the 1,293-acre NC Ranch Planned Development, in quasi-judicial mode. After everyone had been sworn in, Principal Planner Jean-Paul Perez said there had been no changes between the first and second reading, and staff recommended adopting the ordinance. He reminded everyone that the zoning was being changed from Agricultural to Planned Development, and he showed the following slide with the numbers of types of dwelling units and amount of commercial space to be built in several phases over 50 years.

Commissioner Mazon expressed concerns about having a limited number of access roads in and out of such a large development, the largest in the county and twice the size of Haile Plantation. Gerry Dedenbach of CHW Professional Consultants, speaking on behalf of developer of Tripp Norfleet, said new roads will be developed as needed, and they will be sized according to the amount of traffic.

Jean-Paul Perez said the FDOT will have to do something to expand Highway 27/41, as the number of new homes will necessitate a change. City Manager Mike New said that building a road to connect SR 26 (Newberry Road) and the southwest corner of NC Ranch, at a cost of $4 million, would be the ideal solution since it could be paid for with impact fees generated by the development, but the County would have to secure the land rights first, and one rancher has already said he will refuse to sell his land or allow a road to be built on it.

Commissioner Rick Coleman made a motion to adopt the NC Ranch zoning ordinance, and Commissioner Marden seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-1 in a roll call vote, with Commissioner Mazon in dissent.

Highland Park Planned Development construction plans

Perez introduced the next item, a resolution to approve construction plans for the commercial portion of the 128-acre Highland Park Planned Development, formerly known as Newberry Plaza. It is located on the south side of SR 26, just east of CR 235. (See slide below.)

Perez said the zoning and land use for the project was approved last August, and he was presenting an updated construction plan. He said there will be traffic signal, median, and roadway improvements made starting this month. Residential Phase 1 will begin in January 2025, and Residential Phase 2 will begin in January 2026. The 72,000 square feet of commercial construction will be complete by January 2027, and the construction of the 350 homes will be complete by December 2028.  

Perez discussed installing a traffic signal at the intersection of SR 26 and Newberry Lane, along with some other recommendations made by staff. City Manager New said Publix has pledged $134,000 toward the traffic signal, and other parties, including the County, may contribute and help defray the cost for the developer; the total cost will be about $1.5 million. Later in the meeting, Dedenbach said they expect the traffic signal to be installed by the beginning of 2025.

Perez said staff found the plan to be consistent with the comprehensive plan and land use regulations, and their recommendation was to adopt the resolution with the recommended conditions. 

Commissioner Clark told Acting Attorney Kiersten Ballou that he is in negotiations to purchase a piece of land that borders the property in question, and he asked whether he should recuse himself from voting. Ballou said he should recuse himself.

Commissioner Monty Farnsworth made a motion to approve the resolution, and Commissioner Marden seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-0, with Clark recused.

Preliminary plat for Highland Park

The next item was a quasi-judicial resolution establishing a preliminary plat for both phases of the residential portion of the Highland Park Planned Development. Perez said staff recommended approving the plat with some changes recommended by the Planning and Zoning Board. (See slide below.)

Perez said there were seven phases originally, and that number was reduced to two to attract national builders who prefer bigger jobs, but the Planning and Zoning Board wanted the number of phases increased to limit the number of homes built each year.  Perez said the resolution was for a preliminary plat only, and the applicant would need to return to seek approval for any construction plans.

Perez showed the following slide, which details the two residential phases and also shows the commercial portion of the project. He said Phase 1 will consist of 193 homes and Phase 2 will have 157 homes.  

Commissioner Coleman asked about the number of homes slated to be built at the NC Ranch. City Manager New said the development will average about 90 new homes annually, with some peak years as high as 110. Coleman asked whether the Highland Park homes would be built by a national or local builder, and Marlowe said it would be a national builder.

Perez said the Commission should specify how many phases to build if they decided to accept the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board to increase the number of phases. Commissioners Mazon and Marden said they would be fine with five phases, which translates to about 70 homes per year. 

Commissioner Coleman, who also works as an appraiser, said homes built by national builders do not have the same quality as those built by local builders, and they do not hold their value as well. He said, “I don’t want them here.” 

City Manager New said he would prefer to ask the developer to limit the number of homes built to 75 per year so as not to overburden City staff. Marden agreed with New’s suggestion.  

Commissioner Farnsworth made a motion to approve the preliminary plat with the conditions set by the Planning and Zoning Board and a limit of 75 homes/year. Commissioner Mazon seconded the motion. It passed 4-0, with Clark recused.

Charter school conversion of Newberry Elementary School

City Manager New gave an update on the progress of Newberry’s first public charter school and what had been accomplished since the previous meeting two weeks earlier. New said, “In order to make the whole thing work and the relationship between the City and the charter holder, which will be a 501(c)(3) that has not yet been formed, we are creating ordinance language… It will explain roles and functions and limitations and responsibilities of a yet-to-be-created school board and how it all logistically is going to work. The City Attorney is working on that. We’ll have that for you in the month of June.” (See slide below.)

New continued, “We have started work on the charter application. It’s a 70-page application and a significant effort to put together. We have contacted vendors that are qualified to complete that application, and we have solicited a proposal. We have one back. We probably will have two other vendors working on the application. There’s 22 parts to the application. The one vendor is going to work on about 17 of those, leaving five for us to contract with someone that is specialized enough to do that. We’re also working with the City Attorney’s office to develop an agreement between the City of Newberry and the 501(c)(3) that explains what our roles and relationships are going to be…  The Charter School application is due August 24. Very critical. Can’t miss that kind of date. It’ll be reviewed by the Charter School review board in September. There’s a 90-day review process, but we’re thinking in the fall we will get a response back.”

Clark: “I just don’t feel like we’re working as a team that we used to be.”

During Commission comment, Commissioner Clark said, “I just don’t feel like we’re working as a team that we used to be. There is something amiss between the staff, between the Commission, between something going on in the City. And I just feel like we need to pull ourselves together and get back to being a team.”

Mayor Marlowe said he would take the blame and would try to get communication back on track.