A Burden Too Heavy To Bear?

As some of you may know, during the 1960's southwest Florida was undiscovered and unspoiled. Developers descended on Florida buying large tracts of land, subdividing it and selling the platted lots at inflated prices.Northerners, lured with the promise of carefree living, cheap land and low taxes, bought homesteads sight unseen. Not all of the people who purchased property took immediate possession.

Slowly, as these landowners retired, or passed the land to their heirs, they came to Charlotte County to build their dream homes.

As the number of homeowners grew, County government discovered that the overwhelming number of platted residential lots generated insufficient funds (in ad valorem taxes) to support the necessary County services such as road repair, installation of adequate water and sewer lines and fire and emergency service.

In the 1990's the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners began a program of economic development. They established a policy that encouraged larger companies to settle in Charlotte County, not only to help expand the tax base, but to provide higher paying jobs for our residents.

It quickly became apparent that Charlotte County land was not easily adaptable to commercial development. There were very few parcels of land available. There were a great number of smaller pieces, but it was extremely difficult for a private developer to purchase sufficient land when having to deal with so many different property owners.

Charlotte County was at a crossroads.

How was Charlotte County to solve the problem of thousands of platted lots that provided little in tax revenue?

In 2002 the County asked the advice of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a research and educational organization that assists communities with difficult land issues. The ULI recommendation was to “unplat”- the land and reassemble it into larger parcels to make it more appropriate for development.

Why was the specific area in West Murdock selected for redevelopment?

There were a number of reasons. The land values (and tax revenues) in this area had been steadily decreasing. There had been little or no development in the past 5 years; in 1,100 acres only 80 homes has been constructed. The vacant lots were being used as locations to dump trash and the streets were deteriorating. The lack of ad valorem taxes generated by the area has made it difficult for the County to maintain even the most basic of services.

While it is painful to relocate families, the County felt that the West Murdock area (now renamed Murdock Village), because of the reasons listed here, was the proper place to begin redevelopment in Charlotte County. The Board of County Commissioners committed to being fair to existing property owners. All properties will be appraised by independent licensed appraisers. In some cases homeowners will be able to rent back the houses while they find or build new ones. There are also lots available in other areas of the  County that may be exchanged. When negotiations fail, the County can opt to take the property by eminent domain, at which time a jury would decide the fair market value based on appraisals and expert testimony. In this case, all legal and additional appraisal costs will be paid for by the County.