Emergency Meeting Called for the Woodlands Neighborhood District

By: Sharon Aron Baron

Setting a terrible precedent,  Mayor Harry Dressler and three other commissioner are steps away from abolishing the city’s first Safe Neighborhood Improvement District while districts in Lauderhill and Coral Springs are flourishing.

Complaining of the waste of staff time and money, Dressler said he has had enough of it and would like it to go away despite Commissioner Gomez’s request to table it until after the  current legislative session to allow homeowners the right to vote on a referendum instead of registered voters – which is currently in the statute.  Dressler would not agree to this,  and Commissioners Bushnell, Glasser and Placko, who have not once sat in on a District meeting agreed with Dressler.

Back In 2010, the Woodlands Neighborhood Improvement District was established by the Homeowners Association and the Tamarac City Commission under the Safe Neighborhoods Act. The intent of the district was to provide the community with additional tools to combat decline through crime prevention and beautification.

Because there are eight separate and distinctive sections within the community of 910 homes, with two of them not even part of the HOA, and one entire area without any documents at all, establishing the WNID was the best course of action to fund improvements such as new signs, security cameras, and other items.   

Joel Davidson who spoke at last Wednesday’s Commission meeting said he thought it was absurd that they would abolish it and believed it could work.  Regarding the negativity by a few people that were against the district, Davidson said, “If a referendum was put out that every home would get a million dollars, they’d probably vote against that.”

Homeowner Judy Margolis told the commission that the District should be abolished and then asked the mayor and commissioners – in what could be the strangest of ironies – if they could please install bus stops in front of the Woodlands, which is something that could have been provided had the community had a district. 

Several residents are happy now that they can now pay for tee-times at the Woodlands Country Club.  If that isn’t good enough,  they believe ClubLink, who saved our golf courses from financial ruin, should rejuvenate the tennis courts, pools, build a playground and basketball court.  These same people probably never joined the country club in the past. If we had a neighborhood district, all eight sections could purchase a playground for our children.   But would people still be interested in it if they actually had to foot the bill, or do they want a private golf club to give these amenities to them for free?

Residents have one last shot to show their support for a neighborhood district.   Former Broward County Commissioner and resident Ilene Michelson is encouraging residents to attend a meeting with City Commissioner Michelle Gomez and is sending out messages to neighbors:

IMPORTANT MEETING OF THE WNID
FEBRUARY 16TH, 2015
7:30 PM
SECTION 5 CLUBHOUSE
5725 White Hickory Circle
(off Woodlands Blvd)

Dear Resident,

Last May you attended a meeting at the Woodlands Country Club to hear about the Woodlands Neighborhood Improvement District, commonly called the WNID.  An overwhelming number of people who attended that meeting and learned about how we could improve security in the Woodlands and make improvements to the appearance of our community through the WNID were in support of the WNID.  Also, the WNID is the only way that 100% of the people who own property in the Woodlands would pay for additional police security in the Woodlands.

Unfortunately, a small vocal minority has convinced the majority of the Tamarac City Commission to dissolve the WNID over the objections of our district Commissioner, Michele Gomez.  If you are interested in protecting our neighborhood, please come to a meeting at 7:30 pm on Monday, February 16th at the Section 5 Clubhouse located on 5725 White Hickory Circle to learn about the WNID and what we must do next to help the Woodlands.