Benderson’s Stormwater Independent Special District DOES have the power to include us

This information was submitted by an MCA Homeowner who has studied the contract and proposed legislation for Benderson’s Independent Special District to understand possible connections. It looks like there is a very important one.

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Short version

A few nights ago, this was sent to the Meadows homeowners.

It is false. 

Benderson Development company’s stormwater special district will be created by the state legislature and function by the terms of the legislation that created it. That is HB 4091. Under Section 3 – Powers, paragraph (2)q, the stormwater district has express authority from inception to expand its district to include conservation easements and any property it has an interest in. 

The proposed MCA contract with Benderson Realty, Paragraph 41, gives Benderson Realty or its designee the immediate right to record conservation easements on over 500 acres of the Meadows communal property, including the 300 acres comprising all three golf courses. Those are fully deeded property rights that, on their face, would also be transferrable after recording. Under the express language of the district, both as a conservation easement and as related interest in real property, those 500 acres, including the three golf courses, can be immediately included in the stormwater district under the power of the stormwater board without any MCA approval.

Long version

On November 13, 2025, Benderson Development received unanimous approval from the Sarasota County delegation of the state legislature to file a bill to create a special stormwater district over UTC and Nathan Benderson Park. The proposed bill had already received unanimous approval from the Manatee County delegation. On Friday, January 9, that bill was filed as HB 4091. [1] 

That bill will turn Benderson Development into a quasi-government authority to act as their own stormwater district over an area that is directly adjacent to the entire east side of the Meadows.

As Benderson Development’s lobbyist David Rambo introduced the bill to the Sarasota County delegates [2]:

“This local bill would create a improvement district for stormwater infrastructure and public improvements in both Manatee and Sarasota counties . . . While a lot of the focus has been on provisions relating to stormwater at the residential areas, we have the same issues in this area. The land owners in this area [Benderson Development Company] would like to assess themselves for stormwater improvements in order to avoid flooding and other issues relating to the commercial properties, such as the grocery stores, the Home Depot, the University Town Center region that has a commercial property that many people use for relief when it comes to hurricanes and other activities. This would create a district that has a five-member board-of-supervisors elected by the land owners on a 1-acre-one-vote basis. While it does encompass county land, the county lands would not be assessed in either Manatee or Sarasota Counties.”

The bill specifically recognizes Benderson’s role to date in providing “drainage and water control… to … the surrounding adjacent … residential properties.” (Section 1, paragraph 7)

Currently, at least the northeast section of the Meadows drains into an artery of Cooper Creek that flows north into UTC. That is, in addition to Nathan Benderson lake, the primary means of drainage that UTC relies on. That artery falls solely under the purview of this new stormwater district. So even without incorporating any land from the Meadows, stormwater drainage that used to fall under the purview of SWFMD for us will now fall squarely under the purview of Benderson. 

[3]

And, of course, as mentioned above under the “Short Version”, paragraph 41 of the MCA contract with Benderson Realty allows Benderson Realty or its designee to record conservation easements over 500 acres of the Meadows property, including all three golf courses. Under the language of the district legislation, Section (3) paragraph 2(q), Benderson’s fully-controlled stormwater board would have instant and immediate authority to include such conservation easements within the district.

But even beyond that, very much worth mentioning, paragraph 42 of the contract goes on to give Benderson Realty and its “affiliates, subsidiaries or parent” the right to utilize all 500 acres for wetlanding for the purpose of wetland mitigation credits. Wetlanding on its face involves removing man-made drainage elements and returning land to its natural swamp or marsh state to absorb water. [4] Paragraph 42 places no limitations on Benderson in  regards to time, manner, extent, costs or consequences. The right to wetland us is timeless and limitless.

So not only does this contract not, and could not, supersede state law in terms of the powers of Benderson Development’s stormwater district, it goes out of its way to make sure Benderson has rights to immediately include and use us in their district. But there has been no upfronting about this, no indications of what this would or could involve, no limitations on what this would or could involve, and no hydrology studies to let homeowners know what the consequences would be as well as the costs. The overall costs, though, do not just include those to create the wetlands which under the contract fall to us (!), but also the costs of no longer having the use, enjoyment and revenue of the golf courses or the property value benefits that come with them.

Every homeowner should be not asking, but screaming at the board as to how and why this has been slipped in and is being pushed through in a manner that can no longer in any way be called good faith. Once this contract is signed, and these rights are recorded, the Meadows has no recourse. All future boards will be bound and subject to this land sale that will both deprive us of our right to borrow against property and use property, and also subject us to stormwater dictates that we will have no authority or control over.

Laura Casey, J.D., Esq. (retired) 
Former Associate of the Society of Actuaries
Windsor Park homeowner 

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If you are an MCA Homeowner* and would like to discuss this and other MCA matters with your fellow Homeowners*, join the “For The Meadows” Facebook group. (* or partner)

If you have concerns with any aspect of the proposed contract, the most productive thing to do is to share your concerns with all MCA Board members.

Links

[1] HB 4091

https://www.flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=84054&fbclid=IwdGRleAPWMcdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xNzM4NDc2NDI2NzAzNzAAAR6QVX0aDhCE-Rj9X2F3g5uFA3-ZqAuo415x_wyKzWAiPycl0_3fRBPomywm4g_aem_hsib8-zsc1SnCn7eVe5Q1g

[2] Video of its passage before the Sarasota County delegation by lobbyist David Ramba, six minutes beginning at approximately 12:30 mark:

[3] Sarasota County Water Atlas

[4] Victoria Bruce of the Mitigation Banking Group, explaining what lands are appropriate for mitigation banking and credits: essentially large contiguous parcels that can be re-wilded. 

This is what I first watched after Tom Bondur first mentioned mitigation banking and wetland mitigation credits at the October board meeting, and why I assumed he misspoke. Indeed, I do not recall hearing the word wetlands again until the deal was “announced” as final as an off-agenda item at the December board meeting. The word “wetland” was omitted from the subsequent email synopsis announcing the deal. I do not recall seeing the word “wetland” in writing until pulling the board-produced bullet presentation off of the Meadows website on December 16.