NORTH PORT – North Port city commissioners will consider acting on a citizens’ petition to contract the city boundaries and remove more than 15,900 acres of prime development west of the Myakka River, as proposed last year by residents who live in Wellen Park.
The commission will review a citizens petition filed in October 2020, as well as a feasibility study of the idea by Fort Lauderdale-based Munilytics, at a special meeting starting at 9 a.m. Thursday at North Port City Hall, 4970 City Hall Blvd.
The final study draft suggests that the city could lose nearly $21 million in tax revenue over the first five years if the commission were to approve an ordinance contracting the city’s boundaries.
NORTH PORT – The city of North Port has responded to a developers’ lawsuit against a citizen effort to try to contract the city’s boundaries through a referendum, and in it, attorney Nikki Day essentially has acknowledged the suit but has denied all assertions made on behalf of the developers of Wellen Park.
In a response filed March 8 to the third amended complaint filed by attorney David Smolker on behalf of the developers, Day admitted that residents filed a petition seeking contraction on July 14, 2020; filed a second one Oct. 28, 2020; and that the city is proceeding with a feasibility study on the petition and little else.
NORTH PORT – In the latest court wrangling over a bid by residents to shrink the city, Wellen Park developers have filed a circuit court motion seeking a summary judgment to end the process.
Meanwhile, the attorney for the citizens seeking to separate from the city asked for that motion to be thrown out, calling the developers’ efforts a SLAPP suit – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
In January, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Hunter W. Carroll ruled against the developers in their attempt to quash the process that was started last summer, when residents submitted a contraction petition to the North Port City Commission.
NORTH PORT – Developers of Wellen Park in North Port have amended their complaint in an attempt to halt a resident push to contract the boundaries of the city of North Port and deannex land west of the Myakka River.
The amended complaint, filed Feb. 4, comes on the heels of a Jan. 25 denial by Circuit Court Judge Hunter W. Carroll of their bid for a preliminary injunction against the process.
The city is currently paying a Fort Lauderdale-based consultant, Munilytics, $74,000 to conduct a feasibility study on contraction, based on an Oct. 28, 2020, petition signed by residents west of the Myakka River that sought deannexation of all land west of the Myakka River.
NORTH PORT â Meet John Meisel, president of the West Villagers for Responsible Government.
But first the backstory on a contentious North Port âdivorce.â The estranged couple are the West Villagers group and homebuilders at Wellen Park, or what had been West Villages at conception in 2002.
A political committee, West Villagers for Responsible Government, was started by disgruntled homeowners.
The West Villages Improvement District governs Wellen Park. Its board is represented by builders and a homeowner, Victor Dobrin, a founder of West Villagers for Responsible Government.
Its members had first filed voter petitions last summer to have Wellen Park property removed from North Portâs boundaries and placed within unincorporated Sarasota County. The group filed a second batch of petitions in October.