Lakewood Ranch HOA board votes to pull Community Activities' funding

With its community development districts in place since Lakewood Ranch's inception, the resulting funding commitments have helped the communities to be looking good 30 years later.

Meanwhile, homeowners associations have added another level of support, taking care of issues such as landscaping.

Those HOAs also pay into an overarching nonprofit, Lakewood Ranch Community Activities, that provides an array of community-wide social programming. 

For about $16 a year per household, residents enjoy activities ranging from weekly exercise classes to signature events like the upcoming drone light show at Waterside Place on New Year’s Eve. 

“Schroeder-Manatee Ranch (the parent company of Lakewood Ranch) created our organization, just like it did the Business Alliance and the Community Foundation,” LWRCA Executive Director Keith Pandeloglou said. “The purpose was to make sure we had something that would be sustained in perpetuity even when there were no more homes to sell.” 

Lakewood Ranch Community Activities was formed in 2000. Since then, it’s regularly packed the streets with events like Music on Main at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch and Ranch Nite Wednesdays at Waterside Place. Until now, residents in each Lakewood Ranch community have paid into LWRCA's funding. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

However, after reviewing its 2025 budget in October, the Country Club Edgewater Village Association board decided it would no longer collect fees from its residents to pay LWRCA moving forward. 

“It was a fiscal decision on CEVA’s part not to assess this against their members this year,” said Mary Hawk, the board’s attorney. “While it’s a worthwhile organization, not all CEVA members participate in the activities.” 

Every other Lakewood Ranch HOA is bound to fund LWRCA as such funding was written into the builder agreements before construction began on those neighborhoods. However, the Country Club and Edgewater started construction in 1996, four years before LWRCA was established. The residents in CEVA homes are not obligated to pay the fee.

Upon the board’s request, Hawk reviewed CEVA’s declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws and interlocal agreement with the Inter-District Authority. She couldn’t find anything that obligated CEVA to charge its members to pay LWRCA fees.

An unpopular decision

Non-CEVA Lakewood Ranch residents, such as the Lake Club’s Laurie Riehm, fear club activities for all Lakewood Ranch residents will be hampered because they run under the umbrella of LWRCA. Michael Griffin, chairman of CDD4 that represents Greenbrook, is concerned the move will have a “negative ripple effect” on every other community and board in Lakewood Ranch. 

Even residents of the Country Club disagreed with the board's decision. 

"The current board is willing to pay a guard to sit at the Balmoral gate and tell people they aren't welcome until 10:30 a.m., yet they won't pay $16 to facilitate neighborhood interactions," Country Club resident Carol Lucas said in an email. "I think they've lost sight of being a good neighbor."

Lucas said she participates in some of LWRCA events. Country Club resident Chrissy Fournier hardly ever participates in activities, but she said the board should keep its action in perspective because a cosmopolitan at the club costs $16. 

IDA Executive Director Steven Zielinski called the repercussions a possible “administrative nightmare,” and Pandeloglou likened CEVA’s decision to Florida trying to break away from the rest of the United States. 

“It would work, but there’s going to be all kinds of impact,” Pandeloglou said. “If this moves to the next stage, we’re going to have to start validating IDs when people come to play Bingo (or other LWRCA events). That seems a little antithesis of what we’re here to do.”

The majority of LWRCA’s events are free and don’t require registration. If Country Club and Edgewater residents opt out, the nonprofit will have to find ways to make up the loss, or cut programming.

Pandeloglou said LWRCA was created to connect neighbors who don’t necessarily live on the same street, but live among 45 neighborhoods that cross two counties.

He said the experience is “seamless.” Pandeloglou said LWRCA helped make Lakewood Ranch what it is today, which is the No. 1-selling, multigenerational, master planned community in the United States.

While the decision was made by CEVA not to pay the fees, Pandeloglou won’t send out his annual invoices until February for payment in March. He remains hopeful the residents will push the CEVA board to have a change of heart in support of the programming.

Two CEVA board members said they wouldn't talk on the record about this story. Another didn't return calls for comment. 

CEVA’s funding accounts for about 8% or $45,000 of LWRCA’s annual budget. Paid events cover about 5% of the budget, and corporate sponsors cover another approximately 15%. The rest is funded by community members. 

Pandeloglou said the non-CEVA Lakewood Ranch neighborhoods won't have to pay additional fees to make up for the loss. But if CEVA doesn’t pay its next invoice, Pandeloglou will have to cut events to make up for the shortfall.

What might be cut is unknown right now. LWRCA funds more than events. There are over 60 clubs under its purview. For example, When the Lakewood Ranch Anglers Club throws its annual Youth and Teen Fishing Tournament, LWRCA secures the event insurance. 

File photo

LWRCA also has an agreement with Lakewood Ranch Town Hall that allows clubs to use the space without being subjected to the regular fees and minimum requirements. For anyone else, there’s a four-hour minimum to rent a space, along with a $100 deposit and fees of just under $32 an hour. 

Riehm is a member of the A Common Thread club. Club members currently meet weekly to knit and crochet at Town Hall. Based on the agreement with LWRCA, the club is able to use the space for free. 

Riehm said a small club like theirs would have to disband if they were subjected to over $500 a month in fees. 

Zielinski and Pandeloglou said the agreement for club space is in jeopardy, too.

Before any final decisions are made, Pandeloglou is waiting on a records request because he believes there is a signed agreement between CEVA and LWRCA from sometime between when LWRCA was formed in 2000 and Town Hall was created in 2004. But no such record was found to date by CEVA's attorney.

Prior to Lakewood Ranch Town Hall being opened in 2004, records were kept by information storage company Iron Mountain. 

“CEVA has made the decision to withdraw funding from the 2025 budget for LWRCA,” Zielinski said, “But we’ll reinstate it, through further review and research, if we come up with some substantiation that there was a promise or some signed agreement that this was supposed to be an ongoing payment from the homeowners.” 

Zielinski made his own records request with SMR because he found a document that shows there was, at the least, a discussion. The document contains the dollar amount that was supposed to be assessed, but there’s no signature. 

CEVA has paid into the nonprofit since LWRCA's inception in 2000.