The month’s long saga of Majestic Oaks and its attempt to gain a spot on the exemption list under the current wastewater moratorium appears headed for a conclusion.
At its Jan. 27 special meeting, the Brooksville City Council voted to move forward with an ordinance adding Majestic Oaks, which is attempting to build a sports academy at Brooksville Country Club, to the list of developments exempt from the moratorium which has existed since the summer.
“The city truly has, whether I think certain parties think it or not, we are continuing and trying to get this resolved, and have. I hope that is recognized,” Mayor Christa Tanner said. “I really appreciate staff, specifically Richard (Weeks, Brooksville’s public works director) and David (Hainley, the city’s community development director) up here for how hard they have worked not just with this particular instance but with these new utility service fees and the interconnect with the county. There’s been a lot of work that has gone on for months and months.
“At the very beginning of this there were some members of the former council that we said at that time, ‘We need some time. It’s an unfortunate situation, give us some time.’ Tonight is the start of that, giving us some time, the fruition of that you’re seeing.”
Development in the city came to a halt throughout the second half of 2024 in order to preserve what little excess capacity remained at the William S. Smith Water Reclamation Facility. Overages would lead to costly fees being levied on the city by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.
When the moratorium was put in place, three developments were initially exempt: Cloverleaf, Leyland Preserve and Southern Hills/Liberty Landing. Majestic Oaks has been attempting to be fourth on that list from the very start.
It has cited a 2005 utility agreement that the city suddenly said had expired after previously stating it remained valid at a 2022 Planning and Zoning Committee meeting and in a letter sent out this past August just before the moratorium began.
On Nov. 18, Majestic Oaks went in front of the council making its case for top priority once wastewater capacity became available. That attempt failed, although that meeting was only attended by three council members and only one who remains, Thomas Bronson.
Bronson did not vote on the ordinance, stating he had a conflict because the result could impact his family financially, but he was still allowed to be involved in the discussion.
“The narrative usually is government moves slow and this was definitely not done slow,” Bronson said. “You guys worked your butts off like it was your own private business and I really commend that. Trying to work something out, there was a conflict on what was said in the past, not saying anyone was right one way or the other, but the fact that we’re trying to work with people for smart growth, it means a lot that you guys worked this hard on this. It makes me proud to be a part of the city of Brooksville.”
The turning point came at the council’s first meeting in January when Majestic Oaks expressed its willingness to help fund the upsizing of a wastewater interconnect force main which is meant to provide the city with an additional 600,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity.
At that meeting the council agreed to enter into talks with Majestic Oaks about future wastewater capacity allocation. That led to a new utility agreement that will replace the one from 2005. The key will be that Majestic Oaks will pay the new wastewater connection fee rate that was passed earlier in the meeting. The council voted unanimously to increase the water connection fee to $765 and the wastewater connection fee to $6,467 per equivalent resident unit. Tanner emphasized that these are only fees for developers, not private citizens.
That 2005 agreement with Majestic Oaks stated that connections fees were subject to change and the developer has a new agreement with the city to make phased payments toward a total of $4,903,296.
“Funds received from these connections fees are vital regarding our strategic plan to obtain future wastewater capacity,” Weeks said. “… We need a phasing plan in order to move forward with the updated engineering and design for the expansion of our wastewater plant and for the years to come. So a phasing plan does work for what we need.”
The council voted unanimously, with Bronson abstaining, to approve the new utility service agreement with Majestic Oaks, and also approved the first reading of the ordinance which will add Majestic Oaks to the exemption list up to 687 residential units and 75 commercial. A second reading on that will take place on Feb. 3.
Additionally the new ordinance updates language in the previous ordinance, taking away restrictions that prevented developers from applying for wastewater connection allocations prior to the completion of the interconnect or the expansion of the plant.
“We did work together quite a bit with David and Richard,” said Dallas Evans of Metro Development, the developer working with Majestic Oaks, at the council meeting. “I want to commend both of them, they’ve done a great job of working together with us in a difficult time. I would say Richard had asked for time late last year and I think he’s delivered.”
