Proposed legislation impacting Holiday Island attracts big crowd

About 75 people crowded into a small room at Holiday Island early Saturday morning for a discussion about proposed legislation, Senate Bill 510 and SB 548, that would affect people who live or own property within the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID). Some expressed concerns that they had only recently learned about the bills that could have far-ranging effects for the future of Holiday Island.

SB 548 would allow Holiday Island to incorporate by removing a provision that kept Holiday Island from incorporating in 2018. That provision said a community couldn’t incorporate if it was within three miles of an already incorporated city. Parts of Holiday Island are within three miles of Beaver.

SB 510 would make a number of changes in how HISID is allowed to operate, including being able to use the power of eminent domain to obtain rights-of-way for drainage and roads.

While discussion was at times heated and emotional, the outcome of the meeting was an agreement that people on both sides of the issues would work together to come up with amendments to address concerns before the legislation proceeds.

State Sen. Bob Ballinger and Rep. Harlan Breaux were both at the meeting, and Ballinger said he had been operating under the belief that the bills were not controversial and there was a consensus in favor of the legislation. He said the first he learned that was not the case when an email with concerns was sent to all his colleagues in the Senate, but not to him.  

David Bischoff, who had earlier emailed a large number of Holiday Island residents with concerns about the legislation, said in an email following the meeting that both Ballinger and Breaux acknowledged that amendments to the bills were necessary based on the large number of owners present with concerns.

“Further, Sen. Ballinger assured us that SB 510 would not be put forth for passage until such amendments, suitable/agreeable to both pro and con groups, had been enacted,” Bischoff said. “Senator Ballinger stated he would stay after the general meeting was over and meet with those willing to offer input on how these bills could be amended to be more generally acceptable. Any and all were invited and welcome. An impromptu, non-binding, exploratory group remained and discussed potentially acceptable changes.”

The group consisted of Ballinger, several property owners, District Manager Lawrence Blood, and a couple of timeshare Board of Directors (BOD) members. Bischoff said while no one in this informal group claims the right to speak for everyone in Holiday Island, it was formed to facilitate the discussion.

In an email Monday, Bischoff said while there has been some potential progress in addressing concerns, there are still significant areas that need to be addressed before the proposed legislation is adopted.

There wasn’t enough seating for most of the people at the meeting at developer Tom Dees’ office, with those standing reaching out the door. Linda Graves, chair of the HISID Board of Commissioners, said the district manager has offered to open up the clubhouse for future meetings and the possibility of an evening meeting so more people could attend has been discussed.

“I would certainly like to see that legislation passed, but I understand there is some opposition,” Graves said. “If we could get some of it passed, it would be great. But there isn’t much time with only three weeks left in the legislative session to get it through both the Senate and House. Any amended legislation would have to be to Senator Ballinger by next week. You have only once every two years to take up this kind of legislation. That is another reason we were hoping to get it done in this session.”

Part of the opposition was concerning people not knowing about the proposed legislation earlier.

“I just heard about this yesterday, and this is something that affects my ability to live here,” said Barbara Cavanaugh.

When the crowd was asked who knew about the legislation earlier, only a few people raised their hands. But Graves said there was no effort to be secretive about the legislation that was recommended during a public meeting of the HISID Board of Commissioners in January. She said the legislation was on the agenda which is emailed in advance to a list of residents who have requested it, as well as published on the HISID website. Minutes were also published after the meeting on the website.

“We weren’t trying to hide anything,” she said. “We did this in January and there were no citizens who came to talk about this in any of the HISID meetings since then. The first we knew people were upset was a week ago when we saw this email circulated that had ‘danger, danger, danger’ on it. It gave a pro forma letter to put in an email to senators and representatives. This was sent out to 250 people in Holiday Island, but none of the commissioners got it. Why wouldn’t they come to the board first and say, ‘Hey, what is going on?’”

Graves said the bills contain “a laundry list” of various proposed changes, and that may make it hard for people to get their heads around.

Some concerns voiced at the meeting included increasing the amount of interest that could be charged by HISID on assessments, and concerns about double taxation by adding tax collections to the assessments. The assessments are to pay for the ongoing costs of maintaining the district including roads, water and sewer, the fire department and recreational amenities. There are concerns that current laws may restrict the ability of HISID to continue to levy assessments.  

Graves said she doesn’t think having two governing bodies for a while would be a problem, and that both would work together for the good of the community.

“As to double taxation, that is what happens with SIDs,” she said. “Over time, the SID dies out and the city takes over. But I think it would be quite a while before we could have a city out here with enough revenues to support all the operations out there.”