October 4, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster

Florida seems to be a literal “hotbed” of HOA stories, and here’s another one, this time from Broward County where a dispute erupted in a huge HOA when the board opted to pave the property’s roads to the tune of $5 million.

A large percentage of the owners of the HOA’s 3,000 homes were not so pleased by the project. According to WLRN Florida:

Homeowners in the Savanna community of Weston rallied online and in person in opposition to their HOA Board of Directors’ plan to repave all community roads. Board members tried to explain they were saving homeowners money in the long run.

A coalition of 900 homes in the “Savanna Community of Weston” rallied and stated that the useful life of the roads was not yet exhausted, leading to the petition.

In a statement issued last week, the group —the Savanna Coalition or Savanna United — says many homeowners questioned “the necessity, timing, and process of the [paving] project.” They cited a community poll that found “84% of respondents favored postponing the project until reserves were sufficient.” Through grassroot efforts, they raised $13,000 and reported over 900 homes registered under the group.

The board argued that prices were only going to increase, and that the $5 million capital improvement was a bargain when compared to the price they’d all pay if they waited it out a few more years. The current settlement (read: agreement) is a $860 assessment per home to pay for the project. But the legal bills from homeowner challenges that the roads were not ready for replacement have been an expensive “extra”:

[HOA Attorney Matthew] Zifrony disputed this claim saying the roads, which he said were 26 years old, are past their useful life of 20 years. He said repeated requests for engineering studies and legal fees to respond to a 960-page Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation complaint have cost the homeowners “tens of thousands.” In the Sept. 30 board meeting, Savanna Board President Gary Grove doubled down and said the board spent in excess of $50,000 to comply with homeowner’s requests.

There is a movement in Florida by some elected officials to ban HOAs altogether. The movement doesn’t seem to be gaining much realistic traction in the state, given the expense and legality of eliminating the thousands of HOAs that dot the sunshine state. The HOA’s attorney opined:

“Are there bad apples out there? Are there situations where boards are not doing the right thing out-of-control boards. Yeah, I’m sure there are,” Zifrony said. “I’m certainly not going to defend when a board is doing things wrong they shouldn’t be, but to abolish all HOAs because of that, I don’t think is the appropriate remedy, and I certainly don’t think in this instance that Savanna’s board has done anything wrong.”

Read the story from WLRN HERE.