Holiday Harbor resident Molton Smith gestures down Hogpen Creek toward neighbors who initiated the creation of a new taxing district the he says is a surprise to many. | Casmira Harrison, Jacksonville Today
Published on July 23, 2024 at 6:26 pm
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Molton Smith and his neighbors say they’re blindsided by a $4,500 annual property tax hike for a dredging project they never agreed to.
“It’s forever,” says Smith. “The Hogpen Creek special district just came out of left field.”
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Smith and others are hoping the city of Jacksonville will be forced to share their cost burden. He says what started out as a multi-neighborhood petition to simply “explore” dredging the creek to make it better for boating now threatens to price his neighbors out of their homes.
The 66-year-old metal salesman purchased his Holiday Harbor house in 2012 for $110,000. “I was getting ready to retire,” he says. But these older people on fixed incomes, I’ve met ’em. They’re cryin, ‘Put the brakes on this!’”
On the other hand, the project has broad support in other areas, including the creekside Seven Pines Island gated community, where home prices are generally north of $1 million.
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Jason Hafer, who chairs the seven-member board of the new district, says keeping Hogpen Creek navigable benefits all residents.
“The cost to NOT dredge is far more costly than the cost to dredge,” Hafer wrote in an email to a district opponent, shared with Jacksonville Today. “By allowing the waterway to continue to silt in, we will lose an exclusive amenity that few have the privilege to enjoy and what makes our homes special and highly desired.”
The Hogpen Creek Dependent Special District, which the Jacksonville City Council created last year, is one of about 1,900 such entities in Florida with the power to issue bonds and levy taxes and fees. Their residents share the cost of myriad local needs — everything from sewers to fire stations, libraries and hospitals.
Dredging Hogpen is estimated to cost the new district’s 111 property owners $40,000 each over the course of 10 to 15 years, dividing the estimated $4.5 million cost evenly among people who live between San Pablo Road and the Intracoastal Waterway.
While the board is limited to $7,500 per year that it can collect from each resident, it can vote to raise that cap. And the district’s existence can be renewed as long as dredging is needed to maintain a depth of 5 to 7.5 feet.
“We thought it was exploratory,” Smith says of the petition that was circulated in 2022. “The next thing I know I’ve got to pay another $4,000 to $7,500 on my tax bill.”
Creating the district
Council approved the district in March of 2023 after residents in favor had circulated a petition the previous fall to gauge support for a city-designated Neighborhood Action Program, sometimes referred to as a Neighborhood Assessment Program.
The petition was required as part of that process. But city council member Rory Diamond abandoned it in favor of proposing a state-recognized special district, which doesn’t require as much buy-in.
Still, residents in favor of the district used the petition signatures to their advantage at City Hall.
“Has there been a vote of some sort to show their support of setting up this district?” council member Ron Salem asked General Counsel attorney Trisha Bowles during a committee hearing on Diamond’s bill.
Bowles replied that “polling” showed 70% support.
“When they decided to switch to this dependent district, they stopped the efforts to get petitions,” Bowles said. “So we believe the number is obviously higher than the 70%. The few people that we know had concerns recognize the value that it will put into their property at resale.”
The legislation went through the usual public hearings in council. But unlike with a rezoning or land-use-change, there was no requirement for mailers or signage announcing the hearings.
City help?
Robin Lumb, a former city councilman, has been trying to help residents who are surprised by the tax navigate a way forward, which he believes should include some cost share by the city of Jacksonville.
“The injustice of these special assessments is that property owners are being taxed to fix a problem caused by the city of Jacksonville, “ says Lumb. “That’s because the silt clogging Hogpen Creek is coming from the Sandalwood Canal, which was designed and built by the city’s Public Works Department.”
According to Lumb, Sandalwood Canal, a component of the city’s stormwater management system, drains approximately 11 square miles of land area east of I-295 between Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard.
“During a major rain event, Sandalwood Canal dumps millions of gallons of sediment-laden stormwater directly into Hogpen Creek,” argues Lumb. “For the city of Jacksonville to pretend that it bears no responsibility is patently absurd. All the evidence points to the Sandalwood Canal as the source of the problem.”
Lumb has so far collected signatures from at least 22% of district homeowners who are opposed to the tax — several who, like Smith, signed the petition under the illusion that more information would be forthcoming prior to a decision.
“Some will lose their homes. There has to be a better way,” Lumb says.
Even proponents of the district support pushing the city to share the financial burden for the dredge.
“I think everybody agrees it has to be dredged,” Hogpen Creek board Vice Chair Bill Shuetz told more than 30 residents at the board’s July meeting. “The problem is the money.”
In response to Jacksonville Today’s request for comment, Mayor Donna Deegan’s spokesman Phil Perry quoted the legislation that created the district: “It is only ‘financed by the property owners with direct or deeded navigable access to the creek.'”
Some district opponents are also working to try to get the district disbanded, and they are frustrated that council member Diamond is not responding to their requests to talk about dismantling what he helped create.
Jacksonville Today attempted to speak with Diamond about the district via multiple emails, calls and a visit to City Hall. Diamond’s Executive Council Assistant Makenzi Conner sent a one-paragraph reply that contained a definition of the district and adds: “It appears that the ordinance contained all of the necessary provisions” required under Florida law.
Her email also included a statement from city Public Works Director Steve Long, who said, while the city had paid for a Hogpen Creek dredge in the past, that was a one-time thing.
Long said, “The channel and its condition is not COJ’s (the city of Jacksonville’s) responsibility… We do not dredge for private docks and residences.”
But the residents are holding onto hope that if the city-built Sandalwood Canal stormwater system is a cause of silt buildup in Hogpen Creek, they might be able to force the city to contribute.
“They’ve acknowledged it in the past when I was on the city council,” says former Jacksonville city council president Jack Webb, an attorney who is working for one of the residents. Webb told the district’s board last week, “The fact that (council member Diamond) is not communicating with you guys tells me he knows he’s got a problem.”
“The city does have some obligation here,” Webb said.
Updated: This story was updated after publication with more on why Robin Lumb blames Sandalwood Canal for the silt buildup in Hogpen Creek.
Casmira Harrison is a Jacksonville Today reporter focusing on local government in Duval County.
