Boca Falls – Monuments

The Boca Falls HOA had a meeting tonight to consider a “special assessment” to fund new monuments for the development. The monuments stand at the entrance to each subdivision within the community. A picture of the proposed monument is below:

The board and the landscape committee have been looking at this idea for about four years. The proposal is to assess each home $250 for the project.
The meeting was well attended with about thirty people. The video below shows an early part. A few more people showed up afterward.
Boca Falls HOA Meeting
Members of the audience expressed concern. Some seemed angry, both due to the difficult economy, and due to what seems like a large expense.
Several spoke up in favor, saying that $250 is a small amount. Others felt that the total project cost ($734,000) works out to $1000 per home, most of which comes out of the budget or reserves.
There are 5 houses in foreclosures and a total of 40-45 that are in some legal status. These are more likely not to pay the assessment and that was factored in.
Some of the audience didn’t understand that many decisions were made over the course of four years and residents had an opportunity to comment at many meetings along the way.
The sense of the board appears to be that the monuments and associated landscaping need to be redone to preserve or restore the community’s status as the premiere neighborhood in West Boca.
I have to say that even though I personally disagree with the decision, the board obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and appear to be doing what the community wants.