New buyers increasingly have little choice but to live in these developer-controlled districts.
By Dania Hefley
Original Air Date: November 7, 2025
Host: A fast-growing share of homeowners in the region are paying more assessments to their community development district than taxes to their county. That’s according to an investigative series by Suncoast Searchlight. These districts are often developer-controlled, and homeowners have little say. Even so, the Manatee County Commission just approved two more CDDs. Dania Hefley reports.
Dania Hefley: Manatee County Commissioners approved two new Community Development Districts, or CDDs, during Thursday’s land use meeting. A CDD is a special district that lets a neighborhood finance and maintain its own roads, landscaping and amenities through special assessments paid by residents.
The vote to establish the Reagan Landing CDD passed 6-1, with Commissioner Felts opposed. Commissioners then approved a second CDD by the same margin.
However, before the second vote, the discussion shifted into a debate about what these districts mean for homeowners and who’s responsible for maintaining their infrastructure. Commissioner Bob McCann:
Bob McCann
Bob McCann: We got to make it clear what these CDDs are. When you’re requesting them, make sure you don’t keep coming back to the county. If we create the CDD, you need to know what you’re responsible for and what we can do, and you need to educate the people moving in there what the CDD really means because they’re paying fees to the CDD. When they’re paying that to the CDD, the CDD is not telling them, “That’s now our responsibility, not the county’s anymore.”
DH: Commissioner Felts agreed, saying she gets frequent emails from residents who don’t understand how CDDs work.
Carol Ann Felts
Carol Ann Felts: I cannot tell you the number of emails we get on a daily basis that are an issue with who’s responsible for what with our CDDs. It is a layer of government. It is an extra amount of financial burden for some wants, not necessarily needs. It seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. I agree with Dr. Bob. That’s why we ask for a presentation, so that people understand what we are creating: a second form of government that has some responsibility. So far, what we’re seeing from the public side is not too many people write to us and say, “I just love my CDD.”
DH: Commissioner George Kruse responded with a different view, saying homeowners who buy into CDD communities do so voluntarily.
George Kruse
George Kruse: I love my CDD. I have pickleball courts and two pools and a fitness center and a community center, and all my roads were recently repaved, and our landscaping is beautiful. We have gates and a guard gate, and I’m more than happy to pay for it. I’ve also never received a single email from anyone that said they were forced by gunpoint to move into a neighborhood with a CDD. Every single person, in fact, that I’ve ever spoken to moved into one voluntarily.
CDDs on the Suncoast. Photos by Emily Le Coz and Josh Salman via Suncoast Searchlight
DH: Both districts were approved, and commissioners directed staff to improve public outreach to developers and new homebuyers about how CDDs work and what costs fall to the county versus the district.
In other development news, commissioners had planned to discuss changes to affordable housing incentives, lowering the target income range for eligibility, which Commissioner Amanda Ballard argued has become necessary because most of the workforce housing built in Manatee County is too close to market rate. This discussion was initially deferred to the land use meeting Thursday, but Commissioner Amanda Ballard confirmed the matter has been delayed further.
Amanda Ballard via X
Amanda Ballard: We’ll have a larger discussion of our comprehensive plan and development incentives for affordable housing after the new year.
DH: This means any changes to the county’s current comprehensive plan, including adjustments to affordable housing incentive levels, won’t happen until 2026.
Dania Hefley, reporting for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.