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Assessments Go Toward Upkeep

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By HAROLD VALENTINE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

NORTHDALE - When developers planned Country Village, a small subdivision off Hutchinson Road north of Ehrlich Road, there was no plan to keep up common-area grass or the neighborhood's wall.

For several years after the community was built in the early 1980s, a handful of residents would volunteer time and money to maintain the grass and the wall. Donald Tipps, a resident since 1984, said that a couple of times more than half the community took a day and pitched in money and time to help. A lack of official duties regarding the grass and wall meant it usually fell on the shoulders of too few people.

That is why neighbors agreed to create the Country Village Special Taxing District in 2000.

Now the 113 homes in Country Village are assessed $75 each year, and the grass and wall duties are taken care of.

Tipps said his neighborhood's taxing district is often confused for a homeowners association, but he doubted his neighbors would like that idea.

'The only problem with a homeowners association is getting people to participate. They have to give up some of their rights to do that,' Tipps said, referring to deed restrictions.

Tipps said neighborhoods without deed restrictions run into minor problems, such as paint color on a few homes. But he added that bigger issues in most neighborhoods, such as traffic, are minimal or nonexistent in his community.

With no through streets to other areas in Northdale, and only two entrances into Country Village from Hutchinson Road, Tipps said only residents use his subdivision's roads. 'That's a plus,' he said.

Along with lot sizes, nearly a quarter-acre per home, Tipps is happy with his subdivision's location, which is close to the Veterans Expressway and Dale Mabry Highway.

AT A GLANCE

Country Village Special Dependent District

NUMBER OF HOMES: 113

TAXING DISTRICT HEAD: Donald Tipp

YEAR TAXING DISTRICT ESTABLISHED: 2000 (neighborhood established 1983)

TAX: $75 per year

Reporter Harold Valentine can be reached at (813) 865-1526 or hvalentine@tampatrib.com.

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