A Community Development District (CDD) is a local government entity created by a developer under Florida Statute Chapter 190.
Its purpose is to build and maintain major infrastructure in the community — things that are too big or too expensive for an HOA to handle alone. A CDD can tax homeowners through their property tax bill, the same way counties and cities do.
The CDD and HOA are two completely separate organizations. They have different boards, different responsibilities, and different sources of funding. The HOA manages community rules, architectural approvals, parking, violations, and the upkeep of any areas the association owns. These activities are funded through monthly HOA assessments.
The CDD manages the large-scale infrastructure installed by the developer and collects funding once a year through property taxes. In Florida, the HOA and CDD are supposed to operate with clear separation—each with their own budgets, their own duties, and their own areas of responsibility. A proper understanding of this separation is important for homeowners, as confusion between the two entities can make it difficult to track how community funds are being used or which board is responsible for specific expenses.
At this time, the CDD board in our community is still under developer control. When a developer creates a CDD, state law allows the developer to keep control of the board until the community reaches certain time and population requirements. In Florida, once a CDD reaches at least six years of age and has at least 250 registered voters living inside the district, the CDD must begin shifting from developer control to homeowner control. When these two requirements are met, the elections move to supervised county elections, meaning Miami-Dade County begins running the process just like any other local government election.
Even though homeowners do not yet elect the CDD board, the CDD is still fully required to operate under Florida’s Sunshine Law. This means every meeting must remain open to the public, and all budgets, minutes, audits, and financial documents must be easily accessible for residents to review. Homeowners have the right to attend meetings, ask questions, request official records, and understand exactly how their tax dollars are being spent on community infrastructure.
Because Villa Portofino East has both an HOA and a CDD, many residents have noticed confusing and sometimes overlapping expenses between the two entities. This has raised concerns about whether certain services may be billed twice or whether costs belonging to one entity are being charged to the other. Access to accurate and transparent records is essential to ensure that the HOA and CDD remain properly separated, maintain independent budgets as required by law, and avoid any improper mixing of funds.
The current CDD board is developer-appointed, and residents have been informed that this board rarely meets. However, according to the District Manager, a meeting is expected to be held at the start of 2026. Until homeowners gain the right to elect their CDD representatives, attending and monitoring these limited meetings remains crucial for oversight and transparency.
The District Manager for the Villa Portofino East CDD is Andrew Gill, who oversees district operations and compliance. He can be contacted at agill@gmssf.com for CDD-related questions. The management company that administers the district may also be reached at 954-721-8681 for public records assistance or general inquiries. Residents can review official CDD documents, meeting schedules, budgets, and public records directly through the district’s website using the link below.