Your Community Development District

In the way of a brief history, special purpose districts similar to Community Development Districts (CDD’s) are widely used throughout the United States to provide for certain service delivery infrastructure such as water management and control (drainage), fire control, road and bridge construction and maintenance, park and recreational facilities, mosquito control, port and inlet districts, water and sewer systems, sidewalks, streetlights similar infrastructure that is required to provide urban services to areas that may not have access to such services through a general purpose government such as a municipality. Nationwide there are in excess of 28,500 special districts and in the State of Florida there are in excess of 700 independent special districts. There are more than 225 CDD’s throughout the State of Florida that provide the above listed infrastructure to newly developing communities such as The Villages.

A Community Development District is a public non-profit unit of local government with the special purpose of providing the services described above. As a unit of local government, the District is subject to many of the same State Statutes that regulate cities and counties; of particular interest are those statutes related to ethics in government for the elected Board of Supervisors, Government in the Sunshine, a cornerstone of local government in the State of Florida which requires that decisions made by any governmental agency be done at a public meeting; the public records law, which means the records of the District are open for review by any citizen; the auditing requirements in which annually the accounting records of the District are audited by an independent certified public accountant and the results of such audit are provided to the State Controller and Auditor General; competitive bidding requirements for construction and maintenance contracts, and various other statutory provisions that protect the interest of the public.

If you would like more information, you are invited to attend the Community Development District Orientation. Sessions are held every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. at the District Office, 984 Old Mill Run, in the Conference Room at the east end of the building next to the Customer Service Center. The Districts’ Boards of Supervisors have regular open meetings, approximately once a month, as advertised in a newspaper of general circulation as required by Florida Statutes.

On behalf of the Boards of Supervisors for all Districts, we encourage and welcome your participation.