The 5,000 residents of the Arden community are only days away from taking the historic handoff from developer Lennar Homes and installing a resident-only homeowners’ association board.
E-mail balloting is already underway. Residents have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30 to turn in a paper ballot.
That night, at the annual meeting, the five top vote-getters among 15 candidates will be announced and take their seats. The top three vote-getters will get two-year terms. The other two will get one-year terms. The board currently is comprised of four developer-appointed members and one resident member.
“I don’t think you’ll find anyone happy with our current HOA,” Arden resident Corey Kanterman said. “It hasn’t been run with residents in mind.”
David Zita has been the only resident member of the board since December 2023.
“Until now, there has been no one to hold [the developer] accountable,” said Zita, explaining that he has often been outvoted 4-1 on a variety of issues. “They need to be held accountable.”
At the same time, he said, the HOA “is going to have a lot of business to deal with… [and] we don’t want to lose track of the need to work with Lennar.”
Located on the north side of Southern Blvd., just east of 20-Mile Bend, Arden has approximately 2,000 homes with some 2,400 scheduled at build out. Representatives of Community & Council Management Corporation (CCMC), which has overseen the development for Lennar, did not respond to requests for comment.
Community activist Ben Brown, who also is running for a seat on the HOA board, said the major items facing the group will be rebuilding the community’s main playground and resurfacing the tennis and pickleball courts, along with making sure all the money in the HOA’s maintenance fund is accounted for.
Kanterman, who was active in the opposition to a proposed racetrack nearby, said other longer-term issues include a push for the Okeechobee Blvd. extension — “or a second way in and out of some sort” — and possible annexation into the Village of Wellington. “That will be a very lively debate,” he said.
While the current board has not taken a position on the proposed 1.8-million-square-foot hyperscale AI data center that would sit within three-tenths of a mile from some Arden homes and the new Saddle View Elementary School, Brown and Zita said they expect the incoming resident board will do so.
“I do think the [new] board will take a unified position in opposing it,” Zita said. “The question is how.”
Brown said, “Most residents want us to do whatever we can to fight this.”
The Palm Beach County Commission voted 7-0 on Dec. 10 to postpone a final vote on the proposed “Project Tango” until April 23 after opponents led by Brown and others packed the commission chambers, many wearing green-and-orange T-shirts that read: “No Data Center / Protect Our Kids And Community.”
Despite HOA frustrations, Zita said Arden has lived up to the expectations he had when becoming one of the community’s first 50 residents.
“Arden is a great community for raising a family,” said Zita, a father of two. “It’s like a 55-and-older resort community but for younger families.”
Aside from Brown and Zita, other candidates seeking seats on the HOA are: Victor Carosi, Gene Chiosie, Yara Escobar, Gus Frousiakis, Christophe Grosseau, Chandrasekhara Pedapudi, Raymond Penuela, Jim Riley, John Shaw, Scott Weikel, Dave Williams, Daniel Yepes Aguilar and Sam Young.
