Friday, 06 April 2007 04:03

City of Ione Must Look At New Options For Waste Water Capacity

slide6Also, the Ione City Council received an update on the Castle Oaks Mello Roos Districts. In June of 2005 the voters of the Castle Oaks area overwhelmingly approved two new bond districts with only 5 no votes being cast to facilitate a refinancing of existing Mello Roos Bonds. The original Mello Roos bonds had been in default since 1998 and were holding up any further development of the area.  This vote created two new Community Facilities Districts: Castle Oaks Districts 2005-1 and 2005-2. The 2005-1 district will be the current 211 home owners - 2005-2 will be the new 511 homes being developed in Castle Oaks and the surrounding areas of Edgebrook.

slide7 The original Castle Oaks master plan included 700 single family homes, 200 multi-family homes, 18-hole golf course, plus a commercial and hotel site however only 215 single family homes had been completed along the current 18 hole golf course at the time of the vote in 2005 and JTS Communities’ new plans for the current development under construction required the formation of these new districts. Because of lack of infrastructure including sewer and water connections JTS was unable to sell the bonds on the timeline as originally presented.

General market buyers of the bonds want assurances that the homes proposed will be constructed and without guarantees on sewer and water, at least in the minds of bond buyers, the construction of the homes were not a sure thing. JTS, Stone and Youngberg, a company previously involved with the bonds, and Tower Investments formed a consortium and bought the bonds themselves to hold while awaiting sewer capacity for the new development. JTS Representative Rob Aragon updated the city council on the current situation and discussed the process for a resale of the bonds which will be conducted as soon as sewer capacities allow. That process will involve a new appraisal of the bonds as well as other formal legal processes that are required for the city to reauthorize the new sales.

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