Commercial Interest Should Not Own Metro Districts

Sterling Ranch overall has been a fantastic community, but I have trouble trusting that the Community Authority Board (CAB) is really working in the residents’ best interest as opposed to the best interest of the community’s for-profit developer. The community developer set up the CAB structure - a collection of metro districts under a consolidated governing body - and granted itself incontestable control over the body by retaining control over a supermajority of the metro district seats. Residents have no decision-making parity, and per CAB members have no expectation of that parity for a minimum of 15 years, with the developer over any

community investments.

Some of the decisions that the CAB makes - from how they spend their dollars to their continued failure to make good on promises for parks and retail development - certainly make me question not only their priorities but also their ability to execute. Most of all, I wonder about the decision-making processes surrounding most of what the CAB does. The CAB appears to be unable to get routine things right; how can I expect them to make sound financial decisions, especially decisions for which I have no input but will bear the ultimate payment responsibility?

The CAB continually fails to monitor the parks in the community, routinely flooding them via their sprinkler systems. I have witnessed park sprinklers activating during torrential downpours on multiple occasions. We have all seen our routinely waterlogged parks. The CAB continues to bark at residents to be careful of our water usage, but in over three years it has failed to take step one to address its own water failings. The developer who owns the cab also owns the water provider, so the question exists as to whether the CAB simply refuses to address the overwatering out of negligence or out of the developer’s financial interest.

The shade and seating upgrades at the Overlook pool are nice, but they in no way make up for the process and execution disaster that is the splash pad. The decision-making surrounding the splash pad - its rushed inclusion in the pool, its initial hazardous implementation, and its numerous both hazardous and unsightly “fixes” - has been embarrassing. And the entire process has played out on residents’ funds: the developer has taken no risk and bears no financial responsibility for the continued money-sink of the splash pad.

Finally, the CAB and the homebuilders throughout Sterling Ranch have made numerous promises that, to date, have gone unkept. The initial plan, per the CAB and the builders, was that each village would have its own recreation center. This plan appears to have been scrapped, given that there is no intention to build an Ascent Village recreation center nor any documented plan for any other village center. No explanation has been given for this turn, leading me to assume the developer would rather make more money from the two or three extra houses that can go on community center land. In addition, the developer and the CAB have failed to execute on promised parks, and they appear to be dragging their feet on bringing any retail into he neighborhood. Both of these were major promises of the development, but to date they have gone woefully unfulfilled. If we cannot trust the developer to keep promises, and we cannot trust the CAB to represent us, why do we have a CAB?