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SECOND SEWAGE LEAK FLOWS INTO LAKE DOWN - 04/19/07

WINDERMERE AND DEVELOPER DIG IN ON DEVELOPMENT - 06/07/07

242,000 SQUARE FOOT DEVELOPMENT PLANNED FOR FOUR CORNERS - 09/25/07

ISLEWORTH'S TAX REVENUE SPURS FACEOFF- 12/19/07

BURN, BABY, BURN IS CROTTY'S ANSWER TO ANNEXATION - 12/27/07

CROTTY MESSAGE TRIES TO KEEP ISLEWORTH FROM ANNEXATION - 01/04/08

MAYOR GOES TO DC - COUNTY REVISES SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT -05/11/08

WINDERMERE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPER ACCUSED OF MISAPPROPRIATIONS - 08/14/08

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPER BATTLES TO RESCUE VERANDA PARK - 09/23/08

WINDERMERE MOVES FORWARD WITH KEEPING HOMES IN COMPLIANCE - 11/12/08

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT SAGA COMES TO AN END - 10/07/09



	Windermere saga ends with Azzouz land sale Rich McKay Sentinel Staff Writer October 7, 2009 WINDERMERE - The seven-year battle over the fate of downtown in this west Orange town is officially over. Developer Kevin Azzouz — who rankled many Windermere residents with his vision of restaurants, office buildings and condos for the heart of a town that values its dirt roads and small-village feel — has quietly sold his four acres that front Main Street. The new owner, lifelong Windermere resident Jim Karr, 51, said he has no immediate plans to develop the property. And if he ever does, he promised to adhere to the town's dirt-road charm amid the Butler Chain of Lakes. "At this point, we don't plan to do anything with it," he said. "And if we ever do, we'll only do what makes sense for this town. I live here, I grew up here, and this is my home." Azzouz did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday seeking comment about his former planned project, Main Street Shoppes. The purchase price of the property wasn't immediately available. Karr would not say how much he paid. Published reports, such as property sales listings, show that Azzouz's company, Kosta Holdings LLC, paid at least $2.3 million for the parcels downtown in 2000 and 2002 combined. The Orange County Property Appraiser's Office lists the current combined assessed value at $2.8 million. From almost the start in the summer of 2002, when Azzouz first announced his plans for a $50 million, 70,000-square-foot development, opposition was steep. Many residents said they feared the project would be too big and bring in too much traffic. "Residents have seen his plans and have made their voices clear consistently," Mayor Gary Bruhn said. "This wasn't right for Windermere." Azzouz, who made his millions by selling a Silicone Valley software business, promised from the beginning that the project would be done right. "I want to build things, and I want to do it in a responsible manner," he said at the time. "There's no effort on my part to remake or recast the town." The residents' most frequent request was to downsize the project. And usually the developer's answer was no. As the years and many protracted council meetings dragged on, the fight became less polite. Azzouz and his representatives were met with boos at town meetings. At a 2006 meeting, Bruhn called the developer a crybaby. Azzouz blasted the council as being more difficult than the government of communist China and said in 2006: "I'm trying to improve what is universally recognized as a run-down, dumpy little town center. I have endured micromanaging, slander, vandalism and personal threats." Azzouz once said that he cooperated with the town by delaying his project for several years and reduced its proposed size from 70,000 square feet to 50,000. The hardball rhetoric continued, and in early 2007, three people on the five-member Town Council told the developer that townsfolk likely would never shop or dine at anything Azzouz built, unless he compromised. It's unclear why the developer dropped his plans, but in the past year or so he has been battling several lawsuits, foreclosures and bankruptcies, many concerning his half-built $700 million Veranda Park town center in Orlando's MetroWest community. Longtime resident and former Orange County Commissioner Vera Carter said that people who opposed Azzouz's project largely disagreed with its size. She lamented the project's failure, however, because it promised to bring restaurants to downtown. "We don't want the outside traffic, but we need a nice restaurant for the locals," she said. Rich McKay can be reached at 407-420-5470 or rmckay@orlandosentinel.com.

Cities' debate: To mow or not to mow foreclosed homes' yards? Sandra Pedicini \| Sentinel Staff Writer November 11, 2008 Across Central Florida, cities already strapped for cash face a new burden: keeping homes in foreclosure from dragging down their neighbors' property values. Tall grass at these abandoned homes is creating eyesores and attracting bugs and snakes. Though some homeowners associations are cutting the grass, cities have begun sending their own workers out with lawn mowers. That costs money, and governments want to get it back. Under an ordinance passed last week, Oviedo will place liens on homes where city workers cut the grass and owners fail to pay for it. Tonight, Windermere officials are expected to pass an ordinance allowing the city to place assessments on the tax bills of homes where it has to mow. Officials from cities across the region disagree about whether slapping a lien on a home will do much good. Some say it should be easy to recover the money from the small liens. Others doubt it will happen. Tavares City Administrator John Drury predicts that judges will throw out the liens for homes in foreclosure. Windermere is hoping to avoid that issue by using tax assessments instead of liens. Their approach would sidestep property owners who don't pay the taxes by having investors pick up the tab at tax-certificate sales. Oviedo, an upper-middle-class community, has about 15 properties whose owners are being given notice to clean up within 30 days or have the city do it -- for a fee. Windermere, known for its lakefront mansions, has about the same number. "No area is immune from the economic downturn," said Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn. "We want to preserve the values and protect our neighbors as well. We had some neighbors who said, 'I don't like living next to this. I'm concerned about the potential for rodents and that type of thing." Windermere resident Miriam Barnes likes the idea of her town keeping up the abandoned homes' appearances. Barnes said a couple of homes on her street appear to be in foreclosure but so far have been maintained well. She wants to make sure they stay that way. "I don't mind at all that the city does something," she said. "It keeps the street looking nice." Bruhn said his tiny town is contracting out the work. Oviedo officials said they end up doing the same, especially "if we're in the same economic situation when we start rolling into the growing season," said Shawn O'Rourke, Oviedo's code-enforcement manager. Here's how some other local governments are trying to protect neighbors' property values as the foreclosure crisis grows: Altamonte Springs The city has done some minor work such as treating abandoned pools to keep mosquitoes away and repairing fallen fences. But "we are prepared" to do more, City Manager Phil Penland said. If the city starts getting significant numbers of foreclosed homes, "we're prepared to go in and contract with somebody to do some maintenance. You kind of do that as a last resort." Winter Springs The city already has been mowing lawns at abandoned homes, but this year added at least $15,000 in the budget to cover increasing costs of such maintenance. Casselberry "We've just talked about things we could do [such as] cut the lawns of those foreclosed homes," City Commissioner Jon Miller said. "We're trying to see how we can be a little more proactive." Lake Mary City Manager John Litton said his city has had to work harder to contact owners of abandoned homes and encourage them to maintain their properties to avoid liens. The city has not yet had to start mowing yards, he said. Tavares The city has begun investigating a policy similar to Windermere's, which would place tax assessments on homes where maintenance work needs to be done. Orange County The county mows grass after it reaches 18 inches. It will not mow a yard more than three times a year. It has also been approved for federal grant money to buy foreclosed homes. Seminole County The county's mosquito-control department has been treating abandoned pools to keep pests away. Next week, the county is expected to accept a grant that will allow it to purchase some foreclosed homes. Because of budget constraints, county officials say they don't have the money to take care of yards in abandoned homes. "We've cut back mowing our medians," county spokeswoman Susan Vernon-Devlin said. "We're going to mow somebody else's lawn?" Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7914.

Sentinel exclusive Embattled developer Kevin Azzouz battles to rescue grand plan for Veranda Park Of Kevin Azzouz's grand ambitions for MetroWest, none is bigger than his $700 million development called Veranda Park. It's intended to be Orlando's second downtown, a 30-acre agglomeration of condos, restaurants and a luxury hotel, all inspired by the villas of Tuscany, in west Orange County. With ornate fountains, Italian marble palazzos and trendy retailers, the idea is to bring urban glitz to the burbs. But the developer's big plans have run into big problems. He's battling more than a dozen lawsuits, foreclosures, liens and judgments against him or his companies totaling more than $70 million. A wave of red ink threatens to drown the half-built project. Azzouz blames his troubles on the gone-bust housing market and Wachovia Bank's refusal to renegotiate a $52 million construction loan for a nearly completed 144-unit condo building. The bank says the loan came due in February. The developer says he had an understanding that the bank would renew the loan rather than call it in. "This is not a money problem; it's a finance problem," Azzouz said. "I expect that we'll have a resolution with Wachovia soon, and this [trouble] will all go away." But court, city and county records paint a picture of deeper financial troubles. A lawsuit by investor and philanthropist Anthony J. Nicholson alleges that Azzouz swindled him and other investors out of $17 million. Baldwin Park developer Lee Maher has sued for the return of $1 million he invested in two companies that he said Azzouz never created. PCL Construction Services Inc. has a $10 million construction lien against the condo building for unpaid work. Another contractor, Skanska USA Building Inc., has filed a $2.8 million lien. HKS Architects Inc. has filed a $385,000 lien on a Veranda Park office building. Azzouz owes more than $151,000 in 2007 city of Orlando property taxes on the five buildings built in Veranda Park, including his office on Westpointe Boulevard. Optima LLC is suing for $86,000 in unpaid rent for his former sales office on Park Center Drive. Teer Engineering, which installed the audio system at the Tavern on the Lake restaurant in Veranda Park, is suing for $49,000 and wants to take back the equipment, down to copper wires in the walls. Some members of the MetroWest homeowners association allege that Azzouz misspent more than $2.3 million in association dues and are threatening legal action. Azzouz denies that he has cheated anyone and said he expects all the lawsuits will be dropped eventually. "Welcome to the ABCs of real-estate development," Azzouz said. "One problem can have a domino effect. But if I have a problem, I fix it. There's no way this doesn't survive." Still, his troubles have real-estate experts wondering whether Azzouz will follow Cameron Kuhn, whose plans to revitalize Orlando's Church Street foundered. William C. Weaver, a forensic economist who teaches at the University of Central Florida, likens Azzouz's situation to the classic developer's "house of cards." "If they get in over their heads financially, they may take money meant for one part of the project and use it for another," he said. "It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, and then robbing Paul to pay Mary, and on down the chain until they run out of money. "They get into trouble if there's not enough money, and then it's not just one problem; it's crash-and-burn time." Investors' accusations The lawsuits make clear the developer is financially overextended. But in addition to a cash-flow crunch, Azzouz faces accusations from investors that he swindled them. Anthony J. Nicholson said Azzouz's associates approached him in 2006 with an exclusive "friends and family" deal. He and about six other investors pooled $17 million that would give them a 20 percent stake in an Azzouz-controlled company that owned the Veranda Park condos. Azzouz would own 80 percent and collect a 3 percent management fee. The suit says he was also told in September 2006 that most of the building's units were sold and the retail space leased. But in May, Nicholson was told that his investment was worthless. Financial documents on the building project, the suit says, show Azzouz and his associates paid themselves $16 million of the $17 million using such vague labels as "development fee" and "developer's overhead." In addition, the suit says, almost none of the condos is sold, and almost none of the retail space is leased. "One of the reasons my client is so upset is that those fees were never disclosed," Nicholson's attorney, Philip J. Snyderburn, said. "If they were, I highly doubt he would have anything to do with that investment." The suit, filed in August, states that the debts owed on the $66 million condo building exceed the market value of the property. Azzouz said that about 30 of the 144 units are sold and called the rest of the lawsuits allegations "grossly inaccurate." Maher, a friend of Azzouz's, said he was shocked to find out that he had "invested" $1 million in entities Azzouz never set up: a nightclub called the Page Six City Club and a high-end car-rental business. Recently, an Orange County circuit judge ordered Azzouz to produce the cars he said he had bought for the company. Azzouz brought two of his personal cars that are tied up in his ongoing divorce, court records show, and two others with dealer tags and no documentation to show that they were owned by the business. "There really is nothing that my forensic CPA can use to determine where the money went," said Maher's attorney, Griff Winthrop III. "There's no tax returns, no balance sheets, no asset ledger." Azzouz, who has called Maher's suit "a joke," brushes off allegations that he cheated anyone. "I find these claims to be troublesome and very inaccurate," he said. Lavish construction Since 2003, Azzouz has built five buildings in Veranda Park, with artwork and chiseled marble in almost every corner. His swing-for-the-fences style is seen at the Veranda Park entrance. Atop an imported marble fountain is a replica of the Four Horses -- a gilded bronze Greek sculpture once coveted by the Emperor Nero. Still to come -- in the plans, at least -- are Italian-style, hand-carved gondolas for rides on Lake Debra, and six more buildings, including a four-star hotel, a 14-to-20-screen movie theater, offices, shops and an outdoor amphitheater. Azzouz's troubles cast doubt on his plans to redevelop a 4-acre swath of downtown Windermere, a 50,000-square-foot project he has been planning for six years. He said recently that he is just a few months from starting construction, but Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said, "I don't see how that's remotely possible." The developer said he spends every day working on Veranda Park. He dismissed talk that his project could fail. "It's not possible for Veranda Park to be compromised," he said. "This is just one building out of 11. There's no way this doesn't survive." Azzouz said Monday that he is bringing in a new management team to lead the project forward. He and his longtime business partner Ken Simback, who had led the project, have parted ways. Azzouz also said he is in the process of creating a new management company, Veranda Park Properties, to be led by developer Vincent Schreiber. The worst-case scenario, Azzouz said, is that the bank will foreclose on the condo building, and he and his investors will buy it back at auction, using a different corporate entity. When he does that, the debts owed to the construction company and the subcontractors go away, meaning they don't get paid. "We're in a pretty tough business," he said. "I'm not worried about looking good." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

MetroWest residents accuse developer of misspending $2.3M Rich McKay \| Sentinel Staff Writer August 15, 2008 Dissident residents have accused developer Kevin Azzouz of misspending more than $2.3 million of homeowners' money in the past three years at Metro West, one of Orlando's largest planned communities, which Azzouz oversees. The charges come in a 23-page report of a yearlong financial review. A copy obtained by the Orlando Sentinel cites more than $400,000 in unapproved payments for beefed-up security, $450,000 in questionable "management fees" and $350,000 for 10,000 rose bushes -- including 7,000 bushes that never were planted. Azzouz, whose company, Alliance LLC, took control of the 1,850-acre community in southwest Orlando in 2005, decried the report as the work of a few disgruntled residents who have an ax to grind. "We have never misspent or absconded with anyone's money," Azzouz said. "This is all just a worthless rant full of misleading information." More than a dozen residents and representatives of various neighborhoods attended a MetroWest Master Association meeting Thursday night to hear a response from the board's developer-appointed president, Ken Simback. But because board members only received the report earlier in the week, Simback asked that they be given more time to study it. "We will address each and every item," Simback told the audience. Latest controversy The report marks the latest financial controversy to trouble the big-spending developer. Wachovia Bank has filed $51 million in foreclosures against one of his condominium projects in MetroWest. He is also being sued for about $1 million by a former business partner, and his wife wants their $6.5 million mansion near Windermere and unspecified alimony in her divorce suit. Azzouz promised to hire an independent accounting firm to do a full audit of the MetroWest Master Association's books and make it public. The residents' report contains more numbers than narrative. But it said that before Azzouz's company took over, the association's annual expenses -- for landscape, pool and building maintenance -- averaged about $650,000. In 2005, that rose to $1.3 million; in 2006, to $1.45 million; and last year, nearly $2.2 million. The report doesn't suggest that money was misappropriated; virtually all of the expenditures involved work that was actually performed. But it says some of the projects were done to benefit nearby Azzouz-owned developments, not association property, and that other spending was never authorized by residents. Among the expenses cited: More than $400,000 for beefed-up security, including hiring off-duty policemen, after the area was hit in 2007 with a rash of crimes, including at least one homicide, several rapes and violent robberies. Sharply higher management fees, with $450,000 considered "questionable." Before Azzouz took over, residents collectively paid $12,000 a year for management. *The $354,731 to buy 10,000 rose bushes and plant 3,000 of them in the median of Westpointe Boulevard. Other projects included $197,785 to paint and "stamp" streets so that they resemble brick, and a $32,608 floating fountain. Azzouz said the report is riddled with errors and that most residents approve of what the money has bought. The fountain, he said, is part of an engineer's solution to aerate a retention pond. He said people in the community are glad for "brick" streets, nicer landscaping and the extra police. And he said the rest of the roses bushes are being tended to in storage and the planting held in abeyance because of earlier complaints. Developer: Most approve And as for the higher management fees, Azzouz said that a higher level of service costs more. "There are more than 10,000 human beings living here, and most of them like what we're doing," Azzouz said. "Why should we bring it to a halt because a few want us to go backward?" But in addressing parallel complaints of misspent money, Simback chronicled about $110,000 in bills charged to the association that are actually owed by Azzouz's Veranda Partners company, of which Simback is the vice president. He said Thursday night that the association will get all its money back, plus interest. He also listed about $600,000 in delinquent assessments that are owed to the association by affiliated companies, and he told the audience that the purchase of the fountain is now on hold. The report was compiled by Jody Altier the Palma Vista association's treasurer, and David J. Rosenberg, a certified public accountant with forensic accounting experience. Altier couldn't be reached for comment, and Rosenberg declined to discuss the report. Rosenberg has been an outspoken critic of how Azzouz spent the association's money, including the "stamped" streets and the practice of hiring off-duty police to patrol MetroWest. Last year he told the Sentinel: "I don't think we should be spending our homeowners association money on something the police should be doing anyway. I think it's a waste of our money." Tony Swatek, president of the Palma Vista Homeowners Association, one of the 30 or so associations under the umbrella of MetroWest and its 12,000 residents, held a meeting Monday night to discuss the report's findings. He said that if money was in fact misspent, the homeowners would recover it from Azzouz. Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

Mayor Bruhn goes to D.C. Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn went to Washington for a day of back-to-back meetings last week with U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, and the staff of U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. (Bruhn missed Martinez in person because of a schedule conflict.) The topic: money. Bruhn said that with the recent property-tax cuts, the town doesn't have enough money for roads, sidewalks and stormwater infrastructure. The total amount he is requesting? $3 million. "This is crucial to maintaining services and the quality of life for people in Windermere," he said. "If they give $500,000 to Jacksonville or Tampa, that's just a drop in the bucket. But even $300,000 would make a dramatic improvement for us. We're struggling." Will the town get the cash? Bruhn isn't sure. He said that because of the presidential elections, all other business in D.C., including appropriations, is moving at a snail's pace. Dust-up over fire aid Windermere and Orange County were able to avoid inconvenient and potentially hazardous fallout from their annexation fight. Windermere wanted to annex Isleworth and collect the $3.5 million or so Isleworth would otherwise pay in taxes and fees to Orange County. The county went on the defensive, saying the loss of that money would damage its Fire Department. After months of haggling, the two governments reached an agreement -- Windermere would drop its effort to annex Isleworth and its 240 homes and mansions. In exchange, the county wouldn't oppose Windermere's plans to annex the much smaller community of Butler Bay, of about 35 homes. But there was a caveat in that agreement. Orange County said it would no longer provide backup fire services to any area that is annexed into Windermere. That would mean that in a fire or other emergency, Orange County's policy would be not to send help if needed. Windermere gets its fire services by contract with Ocoee. Mutual aid is a backbone of any professional fire service, said Steve Clelland, president of the Orlando firefighters union. "I've been a firefighter for 27 years, and I have never, ever heard of anything like this," he said. "To refuse mutual aid is unconscionable. It would put citizens' lives at risk and the lives of the firefighters." Clelland said it sounded like "political saber rattling" to him. He might have been correct. Because at the request of Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn, County Mayor Rich Crotty told his staff to strike the provisions from the settlement agreement that nixed mutual aid.

Crotty message tries to keep Isleworth from annexing into Windermere Rich McKay \| Sentinel Staff Writer January 4, 2008 Orange County and Windermere's war over Isleworth's tax dollars is ratcheting up even though the question won't officially go to residents for months. Orange County Fire Rescue used an automated dialing system to call households in Isleworth with a recorded message from Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty. This message came just before Thursday night's Windermere's public hearing on annexation. At stake is the $3.5 million in taxes Isleworth currently pays to the county. Orange officials fear that the loss of that tax money would leave fire-rescue services crippled. The tenor of the message tells Isleworth residents that annexing into Windermere is a bad idea, said Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn. "I've never ever heard of anything like this," Bruhn said. "Let me get this, the county is using tax dollars to influence the outcome of a voter referendum?" The message said: "This is Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty. You may be aware that Windermere wants to annex Isleworth to increase its tax base. Before you decide whether annexation is a good idea, I urge you to get the whole story. "Orange County currently provides Isleworth with some of the best fire-rescue protection in the nation. Windermere has no fire-rescue department. Annexation could compromise your high level of public safety. "We will supply you with all of the information you need to make an informed decision in the near future. Thanks and happy holidays." County officials said Thursday that they are preparing a letter to send to Isleworth residents so they can make an informed decision. Bruhn complained that the message is misleading because while Windermere doesn't have a fire department, it does have fire service, which it gets from Ocoee. County spokesman Steve Triggs said that it wasn't the county's emergency system that was used to warn residents about tornadoes or fires, but a telemarketing system that the fire and rescue agency sometimes uses to send out public notices, such as inviting residents to an open house at a new station. Windermere resident Thellie Roper said Orange County is overstating the negative effect the annexation would have on the community. "This reminds me of Chicken Little, and Orange County is running around saying the sky is falling, the sky is falling," she said, adding that she favors annexation. But not every resident was convinced it would be a good idea. Windermere resident Karen Fay said that annexing the gated Isleworth would hurt the town's character as a small town open to everyone. Another public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday. The annexation question would most likely go to voters in a mail-in ballot in March. David Damron of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

BURN, BABY, BURN IS CROTTY’S CURE FOR ANNEXATION Mike Thomas \| COMMENTARY December 27, 2007 An Orange County paramedic is stirring the pot of firehouse chili when he sees a plume of black smoke rising from Shaq's Lake Butler mansion.Does he . . . A) Grab an autograph book and roar off to the rescue? B) Finish his union negotiated two-hour lunch? C) Check the location on a map and say, "Not my job, man"? Today the answer is A. Tomorrow it could well be C. Here is the problem. The state ordered cities and counties to cut their budgets this year. More cuts could come next year if voters approve a tax referendum. Throw in dropping property values and slowing growth, and government money is getting scarce. And that takes us to Isleworth, where Shaq's mansion can be found. Residents live behind walls. They pave their roads and hire their security. They put minimal demand on public services. But their mansions are worth a fortune, which is what they pay in property taxes to Orange County. It's all gravy. Last year Shaq paid about $25,000 to the county fire department alone. And I don't recall any instances of his requiring a fire engine or an ambulance. This windfall has caught the attention of neighboring Windermere, itself an exclusive burb of about 2,000 residents. Annexing Isleworth would about double its $3 million budget. The rich would get richer. And Orange County would lose $1.8 million from its fire budget and $1.4 million from the Sheriff's Office. Adding to the insult, Windermere expects the county to continue providing fire protection to Isleworth. To loosely quote folks from Orange, the Isleworth mansions will burn to the ground before they'll get gratis fire protection. It's not an empty threat, given that the three closest fire stations to Isleworth belong to Orange County. Orange Mayor Rich Crotty has been quite vocal about this, obviously not only drawing a line with Windermere but delivering a message to any other city looking to poach valuable county real estate. He can be quite the King Kong about such things. In 2004, you may recall, Orlando tried to annex 1,800 acres near International Drive. That would have cost the county a bundle, including $5 million out of its fire budget. Crotty went ballistic and then went to war with Orlando, pulling every lever of power to shut the deal down. He expects this poaching of valuable county land to become a growing trend as tax cuts dig ever deeper into budgets. Smaller cities may face bankruptcy if they can't expand their tax bases. Stagnate and you die. Fire stations are a particular problem. The county builds them to serve areas, only to have cities expand their boundaries into those areas. You can't just pick up the stations and move them. Although Orange is engaged in this battle with Windermere, its main adversary is Orlando. The two have yet to figure out how to provide fire service for swaths of land in southeast Orange that the city eventually may annex. It's a very inefficient and expensive way to run local government. And it only increases the pressure for consolidating government services, beginning with firefighters. Tax cuts only speed up the day when Orlando and Orange County become one. And from there, who knows who may join them. Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.

Isleworth's tax revenue spurs face-off Windermere's plan to annex would siphon off $3.5 million a year from Orange County. David Damron \| Sentinel Staff Writer December 19, 2007 Orange County and Windermere are at war over Isleworth, or more specifically, the taxes its residents pay on nearly $800 million worth of property in the mega-upscale neighborhood. Windermere leaders want to annex Isleworth, where Shaquille O'Neal, Tiger Woods and many other wealthy celebrities have estates. In doing so, it would more than double the town's value and boost its tax revenues by millions of dollars. But it also would drain $3.5 million from county tax coffers annually, cash mainly used to pay for fire protection and the Sheriff's Office. If that happened, county Mayor Rich Crotty said Tuesday, Orange could drop those services to Windermere and Isleworth. "It has to be stated upfront: They're going to pay their fair share," Crotty said. Isleworth's 800 or so residents now get fire-rescue services from Orange County.So when O'Neal paid $190,992 in taxes last year on his $11.3 million Isleworth home, about $25,000 of it went to county coffers to cover fire services. If O'Neal and his neighbors vote to be annexed into Windermere, the money no longer would go to county coffers. O'Neal's neighbors to the north in Windermere now receive fire services primarily from Ocoee. But when Ocoee is busy or county crews are closer, Orange has a deal with Ocoee to send rescuers to Windermere's aid. The county handled a third of Windermere's 186 fire-emergency calls last year, Orange Fire Chief Carl Plaugher said. Ocoee crews help county firefighters, too, so the deal works out for both sides, he said. No pay, no gain But the county can't provide fire service to Windermere if it annexes Isleworth and siphons away $1.8 million in property taxes the neighborhood brings to its fire-rescue squads. "That would be financial suicide for us," said County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani. Though he understands the concerns, Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said if the town annexes Isleworth, he would hope the county would continue the fire-rescue deal it has with Ocoee. "I think it's sad that Orange County is saying that they would want to terminate" the existing fire agreement. But Bruhn said the town has not decided how to provide services to Isleworth if it annexes it. An annexation mail-in vote by residents there is expected in the spring. "We're keeping our options open," Bruhn said. Hedging against tax reform? County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said the real fault could lie with Orange County. Because Orange doesn't know just how much it saves or loses in fire-service agreements with nearby cities, it's hard to say any city is taking advantage of the county, she said. The battle for Isleworth's riches could turn out to be part of a growing war among local governments desperate to secure big tax-revenue sources. Holding on to swanky neighborhoods could be one defense against state lawmakers bent on pulling Florida out of its real-estate slump by slashing property taxes. "Tax reform is going to cause government reform," said Crotty, agreeing with Jacobs that such agreements would need to be more closely evaluated. "We need to conduct business differently." David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.

Azzouz details Windermere plan September 25, 2007 ORANGE COUNTY - Developer Kevin Azzouz isn't building his long-stalled office and retail shops in downtown Windermere yet, but his plans for a 20-acre site on Windermere's doorstep are going forward. Azzouz's company Veranda Partners has partnered with the Tavistock Group, which developed Isleworth, to develop about 242,000 square feet of office and retail space at the southwest corner of Conroy Windermere Road and South Apopka Vineland Road. Veranda Partners executive Ken Simback made a presentation of the proposed project to an audience of more than a dozen residents Monday night at Olympia High School. The plans call for a 61,000-square-foot fitness center, 70,000 square feet of retail space and 112,000 square feet of retail space. Simback said the project would include a large courtyard that could be used for community events and concerts. The proposal must go to a public hearing before the Orange County Commission before it can be approved. Simback said if all goes well, they could start building in early 2008. Bianca Prieto, Jay Hamburg, Sarah Lundy, Rich McKay and Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Windermere, Azzouz dig in on development Rich Mckay \| Sentinel Staff Writer Posted June 7, 2007 WINDERMERE -- In a sign that neither side is giving ground, the Town Council won't vote on Kevin Azzouz's plans to remake downtown at its meeting Tuesday, spurring the developer to accuse the board of foot-dragging. "I'm done taking this abuse," Azzouz said when he heard that no final hearing would be scheduled yet. Town Council members, at a workshop Monday, said that instead of having the hearing, they'll discuss hiring or appointing someone to enter into negotiations with Azzouz and his company, Veranda Partners, to scale down the 50,000-square-foot project. Mayor Gary Bruhn said that it is the critical role of the Town Council to "negotiate the legitimate concerns our residents have." Chief among the concerns is that the project will dominate downtown and bring in too many cars and people. The town's development rules don't specify how long the council can wait before scheduling a final public hearing, which would trigger a vote on the project. Azzouz, who has been trying for about five years to develop about 4 acres of downtown with shops, restaurants and office space, hinted that legal action could be in play if the council stalls. "I think that it's unprecedented, that after getting unanimous approval [from the Development Review Board] to go backward," he said. While the meeting was far more civil than a public hearing May 8, the most frequent request from residents to Veranda Partners is for the project to be downsized. And the developer's answer was no. The meeting had an undercurrent of high-stakes hardball, with three of the five council members cautioning Veranda Partners representatives that townsfolk likely won't ever shop or dine at anything they build. Ken Simback, a vice president with Veranda Partners, told the council, "We're very good at what we do." He also pointed out a long list of concessions the developer has given, over and above town requirements. Azzouz's plans have been whittled to 50,000 square feet from the previously proposed 70,000 square feet. The project has been redesigned to make it appear that there are multiple buildings no wider than 20 feet; and the project will build in extra sewer capacity in its system in case parts of downtown ever decide to hook up. And in a rare move, Azzouz is offering to let the Town Council approve of any specific restaurant that might go into the project. In some sign of additional ground that Azzouz might give, Simback said Veranda might agree to build the project in two phases instead of all at once -- if the developer doesn't have to renegotiate the deal. Council member Bob Sprick acknowledged that change is coming to town, and the council's job now is "to negotiate the best deal we can get." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

For the second time in six months, Lake Down and some of west Orange County's most exclusive addresses got an unwanted dose of raw sewage, prompting the county to warn people not to swim, water-ski, fish or even touch the water through Sunday. As much as 100,000 gallons of untreated waste may have seeped into the lake from a broken sewer pipe along Apopka-Vineland Road near Olympia High School, said Jim Broome, the chief engineer with Orange County Utilities. Broome said someone noticed the sewage leaking into a small creek and then into the lake Wednesday morning, and a repair crew was immediately dispatched. "The first step was to shut it down to stop the leak," Broome said. "The second is to dig it up and repair it." "The lake isn't closed," said Lori Cunniff, manager of the county's Environmental Protection Division. Residents and people using the lake aren't considered to be at any immediate health risk, but the warning also cautions people who use Lake Down water for irrigation not to water their lawns until Monday. "This is out of an abundance of caution," Cunniff said. By 11 a.m., about 500 "red-alert" automated telephone messages went out to Orange County and Windermere residents near Lake Down, telling people to avoid contact with the water and not to swim in the lake. Gene Spears of Windermere received the message and remembered the leak near the same place during the Thanksgiving holiday. "This is ridiculous," Spears said. "We're doing everything we can to protect the lakes, and then the county does this to us again." In November's incident, an undetermined amount of sewage spilled into the lake near the spot of the latest leak, creating a pungent stench that neighbors described as that of a backed-up commode. This time there was no offensive odor, Spears and other residents said. Suzi Karr, a real-estate agent who lives on Lake Down, said she didn't notice anything amiss Wednesday morning. But Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said he is concerned the leak happened "in the same darn area as last time. It's two times in less than six months." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.



	Windermere saga ends with Azzouz land sale Rich McKay Sentinel Staff Writer October 7, 2009 WINDERMERE - The seven-year battle over the fate of downtown in this west Orange town is officially over. Developer Kevin Azzouz — who rankled many Windermere residents with his vision of restaurants, office buildings and condos for the heart of a town that values its dirt roads and small-village feel — has quietly sold his four acres that front Main Street. The new owner, lifelong Windermere resident Jim Karr, 51, said he has no immediate plans to develop the property. And if he ever does, he promised to adhere to the town's dirt-road charm amid the Butler Chain of Lakes. "At this point, we don't plan to do anything with it," he said. "And if we ever do, we'll only do what makes sense for this town. I live here, I grew up here, and this is my home." Azzouz did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday seeking comment about his former planned project, Main Street Shoppes. The purchase price of the property wasn't immediately available. Karr would not say how much he paid. Published reports, such as property sales listings, show that Azzouz's company, Kosta Holdings LLC, paid at least $2.3 million for the parcels downtown in 2000 and 2002 combined. The Orange County Property Appraiser's Office lists the current combined assessed value at $2.8 million. From almost the start in the summer of 2002, when Azzouz first announced his plans for a $50 million, 70,000-square-foot development, opposition was steep. Many residents said they feared the project would be too big and bring in too much traffic. "Residents have seen his plans and have made their voices clear consistently," Mayor Gary Bruhn said. "This wasn't right for Windermere." Azzouz, who made his millions by selling a Silicone Valley software business, promised from the beginning that the project would be done right. "I want to build things, and I want to do it in a responsible manner," he said at the time. "There's no effort on my part to remake or recast the town." The residents' most frequent request was to downsize the project. And usually the developer's answer was no. As the years and many protracted council meetings dragged on, the fight became less polite. Azzouz and his representatives were met with boos at town meetings. At a 2006 meeting, Bruhn called the developer a crybaby. Azzouz blasted the council as being more difficult than the government of communist China and said in 2006: "I'm trying to improve what is universally recognized as a run-down, dumpy little town center. I have endured micromanaging, slander, vandalism and personal threats." Azzouz once said that he cooperated with the town by delaying his project for several years and reduced its proposed size from 70,000 square feet to 50,000. The hardball rhetoric continued, and in early 2007, three people on the five-member Town Council told the developer that townsfolk likely would never shop or dine at anything Azzouz built, unless he compromised. It's unclear why the developer dropped his plans, but in the past year or so he has been battling several lawsuits, foreclosures and bankruptcies, many concerning his half-built $700 million Veranda Park town center in Orlando's MetroWest community. Longtime resident and former Orange County Commissioner Vera Carter said that people who opposed Azzouz's project largely disagreed with its size. She lamented the project's failure, however, because it promised to bring restaurants to downtown. "We don't want the outside traffic, but we need a nice restaurant for the locals," she said. Rich McKay can be reached at 407-420-5470 or rmckay@orlandosentinel.com.

Cities' debate: To mow or not to mow foreclosed homes' yards? Sandra Pedicini \| Sentinel Staff Writer November 11, 2008 Across Central Florida, cities already strapped for cash face a new burden: keeping homes in foreclosure from dragging down their neighbors' property values. Tall grass at these abandoned homes is creating eyesores and attracting bugs and snakes. Though some homeowners associations are cutting the grass, cities have begun sending their own workers out with lawn mowers. That costs money, and governments want to get it back. Under an ordinance passed last week, Oviedo will place liens on homes where city workers cut the grass and owners fail to pay for it. Tonight, Windermere officials are expected to pass an ordinance allowing the city to place assessments on the tax bills of homes where it has to mow. Officials from cities across the region disagree about whether slapping a lien on a home will do much good. Some say it should be easy to recover the money from the small liens. Others doubt it will happen. Tavares City Administrator John Drury predicts that judges will throw out the liens for homes in foreclosure. Windermere is hoping to avoid that issue by using tax assessments instead of liens. Their approach would sidestep property owners who don't pay the taxes by having investors pick up the tab at tax-certificate sales. Oviedo, an upper-middle-class community, has about 15 properties whose owners are being given notice to clean up within 30 days or have the city do it -- for a fee. Windermere, known for its lakefront mansions, has about the same number. "No area is immune from the economic downturn," said Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn. "We want to preserve the values and protect our neighbors as well. We had some neighbors who said, 'I don't like living next to this. I'm concerned about the potential for rodents and that type of thing." Windermere resident Miriam Barnes likes the idea of her town keeping up the abandoned homes' appearances. Barnes said a couple of homes on her street appear to be in foreclosure but so far have been maintained well. She wants to make sure they stay that way. "I don't mind at all that the city does something," she said. "It keeps the street looking nice." Bruhn said his tiny town is contracting out the work. Oviedo officials said they end up doing the same, especially "if we're in the same economic situation when we start rolling into the growing season," said Shawn O'Rourke, Oviedo's code-enforcement manager. Here's how some other local governments are trying to protect neighbors' property values as the foreclosure crisis grows: Altamonte Springs The city has done some minor work such as treating abandoned pools to keep mosquitoes away and repairing fallen fences. But "we are prepared" to do more, City Manager Phil Penland said. If the city starts getting significant numbers of foreclosed homes, "we're prepared to go in and contract with somebody to do some maintenance. You kind of do that as a last resort." Winter Springs The city already has been mowing lawns at abandoned homes, but this year added at least $15,000 in the budget to cover increasing costs of such maintenance. Casselberry "We've just talked about things we could do [such as] cut the lawns of those foreclosed homes," City Commissioner Jon Miller said. "We're trying to see how we can be a little more proactive." Lake Mary City Manager John Litton said his city has had to work harder to contact owners of abandoned homes and encourage them to maintain their properties to avoid liens. The city has not yet had to start mowing yards, he said. Tavares The city has begun investigating a policy similar to Windermere's, which would place tax assessments on homes where maintenance work needs to be done. Orange County The county mows grass after it reaches 18 inches. It will not mow a yard more than three times a year. It has also been approved for federal grant money to buy foreclosed homes. Seminole County The county's mosquito-control department has been treating abandoned pools to keep pests away. Next week, the county is expected to accept a grant that will allow it to purchase some foreclosed homes. Because of budget constraints, county officials say they don't have the money to take care of yards in abandoned homes. "We've cut back mowing our medians," county spokeswoman Susan Vernon-Devlin said. "We're going to mow somebody else's lawn?" Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7914.

Sentinel exclusive Embattled developer Kevin Azzouz battles to rescue grand plan for Veranda Park Of Kevin Azzouz's grand ambitions for MetroWest, none is bigger than his $700 million development called Veranda Park. It's intended to be Orlando's second downtown, a 30-acre agglomeration of condos, restaurants and a luxury hotel, all inspired by the villas of Tuscany, in west Orange County. With ornate fountains, Italian marble palazzos and trendy retailers, the idea is to bring urban glitz to the burbs. But the developer's big plans have run into big problems. He's battling more than a dozen lawsuits, foreclosures, liens and judgments against him or his companies totaling more than $70 million. A wave of red ink threatens to drown the half-built project. Azzouz blames his troubles on the gone-bust housing market and Wachovia Bank's refusal to renegotiate a $52 million construction loan for a nearly completed 144-unit condo building. The bank says the loan came due in February. The developer says he had an understanding that the bank would renew the loan rather than call it in. "This is not a money problem; it's a finance problem," Azzouz said. "I expect that we'll have a resolution with Wachovia soon, and this [trouble] will all go away." But court, city and county records paint a picture of deeper financial troubles. A lawsuit by investor and philanthropist Anthony J. Nicholson alleges that Azzouz swindled him and other investors out of $17 million. Baldwin Park developer Lee Maher has sued for the return of $1 million he invested in two companies that he said Azzouz never created. PCL Construction Services Inc. has a $10 million construction lien against the condo building for unpaid work. Another contractor, Skanska USA Building Inc., has filed a $2.8 million lien. HKS Architects Inc. has filed a $385,000 lien on a Veranda Park office building. Azzouz owes more than $151,000 in 2007 city of Orlando property taxes on the five buildings built in Veranda Park, including his office on Westpointe Boulevard. Optima LLC is suing for $86,000 in unpaid rent for his former sales office on Park Center Drive. Teer Engineering, which installed the audio system at the Tavern on the Lake restaurant in Veranda Park, is suing for $49,000 and wants to take back the equipment, down to copper wires in the walls. Some members of the MetroWest homeowners association allege that Azzouz misspent more than $2.3 million in association dues and are threatening legal action. Azzouz denies that he has cheated anyone and said he expects all the lawsuits will be dropped eventually. "Welcome to the ABCs of real-estate development," Azzouz said. "One problem can have a domino effect. But if I have a problem, I fix it. There's no way this doesn't survive." Still, his troubles have real-estate experts wondering whether Azzouz will follow Cameron Kuhn, whose plans to revitalize Orlando's Church Street foundered. William C. Weaver, a forensic economist who teaches at the University of Central Florida, likens Azzouz's situation to the classic developer's "house of cards." "If they get in over their heads financially, they may take money meant for one part of the project and use it for another," he said. "It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, and then robbing Paul to pay Mary, and on down the chain until they run out of money. "They get into trouble if there's not enough money, and then it's not just one problem; it's crash-and-burn time." Investors' accusations The lawsuits make clear the developer is financially overextended. But in addition to a cash-flow crunch, Azzouz faces accusations from investors that he swindled them. Anthony J. Nicholson said Azzouz's associates approached him in 2006 with an exclusive "friends and family" deal. He and about six other investors pooled $17 million that would give them a 20 percent stake in an Azzouz-controlled company that owned the Veranda Park condos. Azzouz would own 80 percent and collect a 3 percent management fee. The suit says he was also told in September 2006 that most of the building's units were sold and the retail space leased. But in May, Nicholson was told that his investment was worthless. Financial documents on the building project, the suit says, show Azzouz and his associates paid themselves $16 million of the $17 million using such vague labels as "development fee" and "developer's overhead." In addition, the suit says, almost none of the condos is sold, and almost none of the retail space is leased. "One of the reasons my client is so upset is that those fees were never disclosed," Nicholson's attorney, Philip J. Snyderburn, said. "If they were, I highly doubt he would have anything to do with that investment." The suit, filed in August, states that the debts owed on the $66 million condo building exceed the market value of the property. Azzouz said that about 30 of the 144 units are sold and called the rest of the lawsuits allegations "grossly inaccurate." Maher, a friend of Azzouz's, said he was shocked to find out that he had "invested" $1 million in entities Azzouz never set up: a nightclub called the Page Six City Club and a high-end car-rental business. Recently, an Orange County circuit judge ordered Azzouz to produce the cars he said he had bought for the company. Azzouz brought two of his personal cars that are tied up in his ongoing divorce, court records show, and two others with dealer tags and no documentation to show that they were owned by the business. "There really is nothing that my forensic CPA can use to determine where the money went," said Maher's attorney, Griff Winthrop III. "There's no tax returns, no balance sheets, no asset ledger." Azzouz, who has called Maher's suit "a joke," brushes off allegations that he cheated anyone. "I find these claims to be troublesome and very inaccurate," he said. Lavish construction Since 2003, Azzouz has built five buildings in Veranda Park, with artwork and chiseled marble in almost every corner. His swing-for-the-fences style is seen at the Veranda Park entrance. Atop an imported marble fountain is a replica of the Four Horses -- a gilded bronze Greek sculpture once coveted by the Emperor Nero. Still to come -- in the plans, at least -- are Italian-style, hand-carved gondolas for rides on Lake Debra, and six more buildings, including a four-star hotel, a 14-to-20-screen movie theater, offices, shops and an outdoor amphitheater. Azzouz's troubles cast doubt on his plans to redevelop a 4-acre swath of downtown Windermere, a 50,000-square-foot project he has been planning for six years. He said recently that he is just a few months from starting construction, but Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said, "I don't see how that's remotely possible." The developer said he spends every day working on Veranda Park. He dismissed talk that his project could fail. "It's not possible for Veranda Park to be compromised," he said. "This is just one building out of 11. There's no way this doesn't survive." Azzouz said Monday that he is bringing in a new management team to lead the project forward. He and his longtime business partner Ken Simback, who had led the project, have parted ways. Azzouz also said he is in the process of creating a new management company, Veranda Park Properties, to be led by developer Vincent Schreiber. The worst-case scenario, Azzouz said, is that the bank will foreclose on the condo building, and he and his investors will buy it back at auction, using a different corporate entity. When he does that, the debts owed to the construction company and the subcontractors go away, meaning they don't get paid. "We're in a pretty tough business," he said. "I'm not worried about looking good." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

MetroWest residents accuse developer of misspending $2.3M Rich McKay \| Sentinel Staff Writer August 15, 2008 Dissident residents have accused developer Kevin Azzouz of misspending more than $2.3 million of homeowners' money in the past three years at Metro West, one of Orlando's largest planned communities, which Azzouz oversees. The charges come in a 23-page report of a yearlong financial review. A copy obtained by the Orlando Sentinel cites more than $400,000 in unapproved payments for beefed-up security, $450,000 in questionable "management fees" and $350,000 for 10,000 rose bushes -- including 7,000 bushes that never were planted. Azzouz, whose company, Alliance LLC, took control of the 1,850-acre community in southwest Orlando in 2005, decried the report as the work of a few disgruntled residents who have an ax to grind. "We have never misspent or absconded with anyone's money," Azzouz said. "This is all just a worthless rant full of misleading information." More than a dozen residents and representatives of various neighborhoods attended a MetroWest Master Association meeting Thursday night to hear a response from the board's developer-appointed president, Ken Simback. But because board members only received the report earlier in the week, Simback asked that they be given more time to study it. "We will address each and every item," Simback told the audience. Latest controversy The report marks the latest financial controversy to trouble the big-spending developer. Wachovia Bank has filed $51 million in foreclosures against one of his condominium projects in MetroWest. He is also being sued for about $1 million by a former business partner, and his wife wants their $6.5 million mansion near Windermere and unspecified alimony in her divorce suit. Azzouz promised to hire an independent accounting firm to do a full audit of the MetroWest Master Association's books and make it public. The residents' report contains more numbers than narrative. But it said that before Azzouz's company took over, the association's annual expenses -- for landscape, pool and building maintenance -- averaged about $650,000. In 2005, that rose to $1.3 million; in 2006, to $1.45 million; and last year, nearly $2.2 million. The report doesn't suggest that money was misappropriated; virtually all of the expenditures involved work that was actually performed. But it says some of the projects were done to benefit nearby Azzouz-owned developments, not association property, and that other spending was never authorized by residents. Among the expenses cited: More than $400,000 for beefed-up security, including hiring off-duty policemen, after the area was hit in 2007 with a rash of crimes, including at least one homicide, several rapes and violent robberies. Sharply higher management fees, with $450,000 considered "questionable." Before Azzouz took over, residents collectively paid $12,000 a year for management. *The $354,731 to buy 10,000 rose bushes and plant 3,000 of them in the median of Westpointe Boulevard. Other projects included $197,785 to paint and "stamp" streets so that they resemble brick, and a $32,608 floating fountain. Azzouz said the report is riddled with errors and that most residents approve of what the money has bought. The fountain, he said, is part of an engineer's solution to aerate a retention pond. He said people in the community are glad for "brick" streets, nicer landscaping and the extra police. And he said the rest of the roses bushes are being tended to in storage and the planting held in abeyance because of earlier complaints. Developer: Most approve And as for the higher management fees, Azzouz said that a higher level of service costs more. "There are more than 10,000 human beings living here, and most of them like what we're doing," Azzouz said. "Why should we bring it to a halt because a few want us to go backward?" But in addressing parallel complaints of misspent money, Simback chronicled about $110,000 in bills charged to the association that are actually owed by Azzouz's Veranda Partners company, of which Simback is the vice president. He said Thursday night that the association will get all its money back, plus interest. He also listed about $600,000 in delinquent assessments that are owed to the association by affiliated companies, and he told the audience that the purchase of the fountain is now on hold. The report was compiled by Jody Altier the Palma Vista association's treasurer, and David J. Rosenberg, a certified public accountant with forensic accounting experience. Altier couldn't be reached for comment, and Rosenberg declined to discuss the report. Rosenberg has been an outspoken critic of how Azzouz spent the association's money, including the "stamped" streets and the practice of hiring off-duty police to patrol MetroWest. Last year he told the Sentinel: "I don't think we should be spending our homeowners association money on something the police should be doing anyway. I think it's a waste of our money." Tony Swatek, president of the Palma Vista Homeowners Association, one of the 30 or so associations under the umbrella of MetroWest and its 12,000 residents, held a meeting Monday night to discuss the report's findings. He said that if money was in fact misspent, the homeowners would recover it from Azzouz. Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

Mayor Bruhn goes to D.C. Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn went to Washington for a day of back-to-back meetings last week with U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, and the staff of U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. (Bruhn missed Martinez in person because of a schedule conflict.) The topic: money. Bruhn said that with the recent property-tax cuts, the town doesn't have enough money for roads, sidewalks and stormwater infrastructure. The total amount he is requesting? $3 million. "This is crucial to maintaining services and the quality of life for people in Windermere," he said. "If they give $500,000 to Jacksonville or Tampa, that's just a drop in the bucket. But even $300,000 would make a dramatic improvement for us. We're struggling." Will the town get the cash? Bruhn isn't sure. He said that because of the presidential elections, all other business in D.C., including appropriations, is moving at a snail's pace. Dust-up over fire aid Windermere and Orange County were able to avoid inconvenient and potentially hazardous fallout from their annexation fight. Windermere wanted to annex Isleworth and collect the $3.5 million or so Isleworth would otherwise pay in taxes and fees to Orange County. The county went on the defensive, saying the loss of that money would damage its Fire Department. After months of haggling, the two governments reached an agreement -- Windermere would drop its effort to annex Isleworth and its 240 homes and mansions. In exchange, the county wouldn't oppose Windermere's plans to annex the much smaller community of Butler Bay, of about 35 homes. But there was a caveat in that agreement. Orange County said it would no longer provide backup fire services to any area that is annexed into Windermere. That would mean that in a fire or other emergency, Orange County's policy would be not to send help if needed. Windermere gets its fire services by contract with Ocoee. Mutual aid is a backbone of any professional fire service, said Steve Clelland, president of the Orlando firefighters union. "I've been a firefighter for 27 years, and I have never, ever heard of anything like this," he said. "To refuse mutual aid is unconscionable. It would put citizens' lives at risk and the lives of the firefighters." Clelland said it sounded like "political saber rattling" to him. He might have been correct. Because at the request of Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn, County Mayor Rich Crotty told his staff to strike the provisions from the settlement agreement that nixed mutual aid.

Crotty message tries to keep Isleworth from annexing into Windermere Rich McKay \| Sentinel Staff Writer January 4, 2008 Orange County and Windermere's war over Isleworth's tax dollars is ratcheting up even though the question won't officially go to residents for months. Orange County Fire Rescue used an automated dialing system to call households in Isleworth with a recorded message from Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty. This message came just before Thursday night's Windermere's public hearing on annexation. At stake is the $3.5 million in taxes Isleworth currently pays to the county. Orange officials fear that the loss of that tax money would leave fire-rescue services crippled. The tenor of the message tells Isleworth residents that annexing into Windermere is a bad idea, said Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn. "I've never ever heard of anything like this," Bruhn said. "Let me get this, the county is using tax dollars to influence the outcome of a voter referendum?" The message said: "This is Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty. You may be aware that Windermere wants to annex Isleworth to increase its tax base. Before you decide whether annexation is a good idea, I urge you to get the whole story. "Orange County currently provides Isleworth with some of the best fire-rescue protection in the nation. Windermere has no fire-rescue department. Annexation could compromise your high level of public safety. "We will supply you with all of the information you need to make an informed decision in the near future. Thanks and happy holidays." County officials said Thursday that they are preparing a letter to send to Isleworth residents so they can make an informed decision. Bruhn complained that the message is misleading because while Windermere doesn't have a fire department, it does have fire service, which it gets from Ocoee. County spokesman Steve Triggs said that it wasn't the county's emergency system that was used to warn residents about tornadoes or fires, but a telemarketing system that the fire and rescue agency sometimes uses to send out public notices, such as inviting residents to an open house at a new station. Windermere resident Thellie Roper said Orange County is overstating the negative effect the annexation would have on the community. "This reminds me of Chicken Little, and Orange County is running around saying the sky is falling, the sky is falling," she said, adding that she favors annexation. But not every resident was convinced it would be a good idea. Windermere resident Karen Fay said that annexing the gated Isleworth would hurt the town's character as a small town open to everyone. Another public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday. The annexation question would most likely go to voters in a mail-in ballot in March. David Damron of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

BURN, BABY, BURN IS CROTTY’S CURE FOR ANNEXATION Mike Thomas \| COMMENTARY December 27, 2007 An Orange County paramedic is stirring the pot of firehouse chili when he sees a plume of black smoke rising from Shaq's Lake Butler mansion.Does he . . . A) Grab an autograph book and roar off to the rescue? B) Finish his union negotiated two-hour lunch? C) Check the location on a map and say, "Not my job, man"? Today the answer is A. Tomorrow it could well be C. Here is the problem. The state ordered cities and counties to cut their budgets this year. More cuts could come next year if voters approve a tax referendum. Throw in dropping property values and slowing growth, and government money is getting scarce. And that takes us to Isleworth, where Shaq's mansion can be found. Residents live behind walls. They pave their roads and hire their security. They put minimal demand on public services. But their mansions are worth a fortune, which is what they pay in property taxes to Orange County. It's all gravy. Last year Shaq paid about $25,000 to the county fire department alone. And I don't recall any instances of his requiring a fire engine or an ambulance. This windfall has caught the attention of neighboring Windermere, itself an exclusive burb of about 2,000 residents. Annexing Isleworth would about double its $3 million budget. The rich would get richer. And Orange County would lose $1.8 million from its fire budget and $1.4 million from the Sheriff's Office. Adding to the insult, Windermere expects the county to continue providing fire protection to Isleworth. To loosely quote folks from Orange, the Isleworth mansions will burn to the ground before they'll get gratis fire protection. It's not an empty threat, given that the three closest fire stations to Isleworth belong to Orange County. Orange Mayor Rich Crotty has been quite vocal about this, obviously not only drawing a line with Windermere but delivering a message to any other city looking to poach valuable county real estate. He can be quite the King Kong about such things. In 2004, you may recall, Orlando tried to annex 1,800 acres near International Drive. That would have cost the county a bundle, including $5 million out of its fire budget. Crotty went ballistic and then went to war with Orlando, pulling every lever of power to shut the deal down. He expects this poaching of valuable county land to become a growing trend as tax cuts dig ever deeper into budgets. Smaller cities may face bankruptcy if they can't expand their tax bases. Stagnate and you die. Fire stations are a particular problem. The county builds them to serve areas, only to have cities expand their boundaries into those areas. You can't just pick up the stations and move them. Although Orange is engaged in this battle with Windermere, its main adversary is Orlando. The two have yet to figure out how to provide fire service for swaths of land in southeast Orange that the city eventually may annex. It's a very inefficient and expensive way to run local government. And it only increases the pressure for consolidating government services, beginning with firefighters. Tax cuts only speed up the day when Orlando and Orange County become one. And from there, who knows who may join them. Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.

Isleworth's tax revenue spurs face-off Windermere's plan to annex would siphon off $3.5 million a year from Orange County. David Damron \| Sentinel Staff Writer December 19, 2007 Orange County and Windermere are at war over Isleworth, or more specifically, the taxes its residents pay on nearly $800 million worth of property in the mega-upscale neighborhood. Windermere leaders want to annex Isleworth, where Shaquille O'Neal, Tiger Woods and many other wealthy celebrities have estates. In doing so, it would more than double the town's value and boost its tax revenues by millions of dollars. But it also would drain $3.5 million from county tax coffers annually, cash mainly used to pay for fire protection and the Sheriff's Office. If that happened, county Mayor Rich Crotty said Tuesday, Orange could drop those services to Windermere and Isleworth. "It has to be stated upfront: They're going to pay their fair share," Crotty said. Isleworth's 800 or so residents now get fire-rescue services from Orange County.So when O'Neal paid $190,992 in taxes last year on his $11.3 million Isleworth home, about $25,000 of it went to county coffers to cover fire services. If O'Neal and his neighbors vote to be annexed into Windermere, the money no longer would go to county coffers. O'Neal's neighbors to the north in Windermere now receive fire services primarily from Ocoee. But when Ocoee is busy or county crews are closer, Orange has a deal with Ocoee to send rescuers to Windermere's aid. The county handled a third of Windermere's 186 fire-emergency calls last year, Orange Fire Chief Carl Plaugher said. Ocoee crews help county firefighters, too, so the deal works out for both sides, he said. No pay, no gain But the county can't provide fire service to Windermere if it annexes Isleworth and siphons away $1.8 million in property taxes the neighborhood brings to its fire-rescue squads. "That would be financial suicide for us," said County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani. Though he understands the concerns, Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said if the town annexes Isleworth, he would hope the county would continue the fire-rescue deal it has with Ocoee. "I think it's sad that Orange County is saying that they would want to terminate" the existing fire agreement. But Bruhn said the town has not decided how to provide services to Isleworth if it annexes it. An annexation mail-in vote by residents there is expected in the spring. "We're keeping our options open," Bruhn said. Hedging against tax reform? County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said the real fault could lie with Orange County. Because Orange doesn't know just how much it saves or loses in fire-service agreements with nearby cities, it's hard to say any city is taking advantage of the county, she said. The battle for Isleworth's riches could turn out to be part of a growing war among local governments desperate to secure big tax-revenue sources. Holding on to swanky neighborhoods could be one defense against state lawmakers bent on pulling Florida out of its real-estate slump by slashing property taxes. "Tax reform is going to cause government reform," said Crotty, agreeing with Jacobs that such agreements would need to be more closely evaluated. "We need to conduct business differently." David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.

Azzouz details Windermere plan September 25, 2007 ORANGE COUNTY - Developer Kevin Azzouz isn't building his long-stalled office and retail shops in downtown Windermere yet, but his plans for a 20-acre site on Windermere's doorstep are going forward. Azzouz's company Veranda Partners has partnered with the Tavistock Group, which developed Isleworth, to develop about 242,000 square feet of office and retail space at the southwest corner of Conroy Windermere Road and South Apopka Vineland Road. Veranda Partners executive Ken Simback made a presentation of the proposed project to an audience of more than a dozen residents Monday night at Olympia High School. The plans call for a 61,000-square-foot fitness center, 70,000 square feet of retail space and 112,000 square feet of retail space. Simback said the project would include a large courtyard that could be used for community events and concerts. The proposal must go to a public hearing before the Orange County Commission before it can be approved. Simback said if all goes well, they could start building in early 2008. Bianca Prieto, Jay Hamburg, Sarah Lundy, Rich McKay and Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Windermere, Azzouz dig in on development Rich Mckay \| Sentinel Staff Writer Posted June 7, 2007 WINDERMERE -- In a sign that neither side is giving ground, the Town Council won't vote on Kevin Azzouz's plans to remake downtown at its meeting Tuesday, spurring the developer to accuse the board of foot-dragging. "I'm done taking this abuse," Azzouz said when he heard that no final hearing would be scheduled yet. Town Council members, at a workshop Monday, said that instead of having the hearing, they'll discuss hiring or appointing someone to enter into negotiations with Azzouz and his company, Veranda Partners, to scale down the 50,000-square-foot project. Mayor Gary Bruhn said that it is the critical role of the Town Council to "negotiate the legitimate concerns our residents have." Chief among the concerns is that the project will dominate downtown and bring in too many cars and people. The town's development rules don't specify how long the council can wait before scheduling a final public hearing, which would trigger a vote on the project. Azzouz, who has been trying for about five years to develop about 4 acres of downtown with shops, restaurants and office space, hinted that legal action could be in play if the council stalls. "I think that it's unprecedented, that after getting unanimous approval [from the Development Review Board] to go backward," he said. While the meeting was far more civil than a public hearing May 8, the most frequent request from residents to Veranda Partners is for the project to be downsized. And the developer's answer was no. The meeting had an undercurrent of high-stakes hardball, with three of the five council members cautioning Veranda Partners representatives that townsfolk likely won't ever shop or dine at anything they build. Ken Simback, a vice president with Veranda Partners, told the council, "We're very good at what we do." He also pointed out a long list of concessions the developer has given, over and above town requirements. Azzouz's plans have been whittled to 50,000 square feet from the previously proposed 70,000 square feet. The project has been redesigned to make it appear that there are multiple buildings no wider than 20 feet; and the project will build in extra sewer capacity in its system in case parts of downtown ever decide to hook up. And in a rare move, Azzouz is offering to let the Town Council approve of any specific restaurant that might go into the project. In some sign of additional ground that Azzouz might give, Simback said Veranda might agree to build the project in two phases instead of all at once -- if the developer doesn't have to renegotiate the deal. Council member Bob Sprick acknowledged that change is coming to town, and the council's job now is "to negotiate the best deal we can get." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.

For the second time in six months, Lake Down and some of west Orange County's most exclusive addresses got an unwanted dose of raw sewage, prompting the county to warn people not to swim, water-ski, fish or even touch the water through Sunday. As much as 100,000 gallons of untreated waste may have seeped into the lake from a broken sewer pipe along Apopka-Vineland Road near Olympia High School, said Jim Broome, the chief engineer with Orange County Utilities. Broome said someone noticed the sewage leaking into a small creek and then into the lake Wednesday morning, and a repair crew was immediately dispatched. "The first step was to shut it down to stop the leak," Broome said. "The second is to dig it up and repair it." "The lake isn't closed," said Lori Cunniff, manager of the county's Environmental Protection Division. Residents and people using the lake aren't considered to be at any immediate health risk, but the warning also cautions people who use Lake Down water for irrigation not to water their lawns until Monday. "This is out of an abundance of caution," Cunniff said. By 11 a.m., about 500 "red-alert" automated telephone messages went out to Orange County and Windermere residents near Lake Down, telling people to avoid contact with the water and not to swim in the lake. Gene Spears of Windermere received the message and remembered the leak near the same place during the Thanksgiving holiday. "This is ridiculous," Spears said. "We're doing everything we can to protect the lakes, and then the county does this to us again." In November's incident, an undetermined amount of sewage spilled into the lake near the spot of the latest leak, creating a pungent stench that neighbors described as that of a backed-up commode. This time there was no offensive odor, Spears and other residents said. Suzi Karr, a real-estate agent who lives on Lake Down, said she didn't notice anything amiss Wednesday morning. But Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said he is concerned the leak happened "in the same darn area as last time. It's two times in less than six months." Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.