A new home in an Osceola County community usually comes with two boards, and the developer controls both at the start. The community development district board is a unit of local government, and Florida law starts moving its seats to resident voters six years after the initial board is seated, once at least 250 registered voters live inside the district. The homeowners association board runs on a separate trigger entirely: one resident director once half the lots have been conveyed, and a resident majority three months after 90 percent have been conveyed. The two dates are rarely close together.
One of your boards is a government, the other is a corporation
A community development district is created by county ordinance under chapter 190, Florida Statutes, the Uniform Community Development District Act of 1980, and it is a local, special purpose government. Its five elected board members are called supervisors, its meetings are open to the public under section 189.015(2) and governed by chapter 286, and its records are public records. Your homeowners association is a Florida not-for-profit corporation governed by chapter 720 and by the declaration recorded against your lot, its directors are elected by members under the governing documents, and its records are association records rather than public records. Both bodies can bill you, and in Osceola the district assessment usually arrives on the county tax bill while association dues are billed separately.
At the start, the district board is elected by the acre
Section 190.006(2) sets the opening arrangement. Within 90 days after the establishing ordinance takes effect, a meeting of landowners elects five supervisors. Each landowner casts one vote per acre owned inside the district, written proxies are allowed, and a fraction of an acre counts as one acre. Platted lots are counted individually and rounded up to the nearest whole acre, and the statute bars aggregating platted-lot acreage into larger voting blocks. While the developer still owns most of the raw acreage, the developer elects the board, a homeowner on a quarter-acre lot has one vote, and a landowner-elected supervisor does not have to live in the district.
When Osceola residents take over the district board
Section 190.006(3)(a)2 sets two conditions, and both have to be satisfied. The first is time: six years after the initial appointment of members, or ten years for a district over 5,000 acres or a compact, urban, mixed-use district. The second is population: at least 250 qualified electors inside the district, or 500 for those larger districts. A qualified elector, defined in section 190.003, is someone at least 18 years old, a United States citizen, a legal resident of Florida and of the district, registered to vote with the county supervisor of elections. An investor who owns a lot and lives elsewhere never becomes one.
Once both conditions are met, the handover comes in stages. Two expiring seats are filled by qualified electors elected by qualified electors for four-year terms, while the third expiring seat is still elected by landowners and that supervisor need not be a qualified elector. After that, each seat converts as its term expires. These elections are nonpartisan, run at the November general election, and are conducted by the county supervisor of elections.
The count that controls all of it is public and dated. Under section 190.006(3)(a)2.d, the board must determine the number of qualified electors on or before June 1 each year, measured as of the preceding April 15, relying on the official records of the supervisor of elections and the county property appraiser or tax collector. That determination is made at a properly noticed meeting and entered in the official minutes, so you can read where your community stands rather than guess.
What that looked like in Osceola on November 3, 2026
This is not a rare event in this county. The Florida Secretary of State’s amended notice of general election for Osceola County, given May 26, 2026, lists 33 special districts with a combined 81 supervisor seats to be filled at the November 3, 2026 general election. Twenty-nine of the 33 are community development districts, and the rest are common facilities districts.
Tohoqua in Kissimmee shows the arc. Osceola County Ordinance 2017-57 established the Tohoqua Community Development District, described in the ordinance as containing approximately 783.96 acres situated entirely within unincorporated Osceola County, and named five people to serve as the initial board. Because the district sits well under 5,000 acres and far above the 75-acre ceiling for a compact, urban, mixed-use district, the six-year and 250-elector thresholds apply. The district’s own website gives its establishment date as August 14, 2017, putting the six-year mark in August 2023.
Seats 1 and 2 of that district appear on the Secretary of State’s November 3, 2026 notice. On the district’s published board page, checked November 9, 2026, those are the two seats with terms expiring in 11/2026, and two of the five people the 2017 ordinance designated as initial supervisors were still listed in them, each shown with a company affiliation, one of them the same entity that petitioned the county to create the district in 2017. Supervisors elected on November 3 take office on the second Tuesday following the election under section 190.006(3)(b), which is November 17, 2026.
The association board answers to a different clock
Section 720.307 governs the homeowners association, and it counts conveyed parcels rather than acres or years. Members other than the developer elect at least one director once 50 percent of the parcels in all phases the association will ultimately operate have been conveyed to them, and at least a majority three months after 90 percent have been conveyed. Four further events can pull the trigger early: the developer abandoning or deserting its obligation to complete the amenities or infrastructure disclosed in the governing documents, a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, loss of title through foreclosure or a deed in lieu, or a receiver appointed by a circuit court and not discharged within 30 days. Your governing documents may also set a lower percentage or a different event, where that was required to satisfy a mortgage financing agency, so the recorded documents can beat the statutory default.
Two details change the arithmetic. The developer keeps the right to elect one director for as long as it holds at least 5 percent of the parcels for sale in the ordinary course of business. And builders, contractors and others who buy a parcel in order to build on it for resale are expressly excluded from the count of “members other than the developer,” so lots sitting in a builder’s inventory do not advance you toward 50 or 90 percent.
| Question | Community development district | Homeowners association |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Unit of local government, chapter 190 | Not-for-profit corporation, chapter 720 |
| Who votes at the start | Landowners, one vote per acre | Members as the recorded declaration provides |
| What shifts control | Six years after the initial board, ten if over 5,000 acres or a compact, urban, mixed-use district, plus 250 qualified electors, 500 for those larger districts | 50 percent of parcels conveyed for one director, 90 percent plus three months for a majority |
| How the shift happens | Two seats at a November general election, then each seat as its term expires | Member election once the threshold is reached |
| Who runs the election | County supervisor of elections | The association itself |
| Where the record lives | District website and minutes, ss. 189.015 and 189.069 | Declaration and association records, s. 720.303 |
What the developer has to hand over at association turnover
Section 720.307(4) gives the developer no more than 90 days from the date members become entitled to elect a board majority, at the developer’s own expense, and the list runs to 20 categories: deeds to common property, the original declaration, the articles and bylaws, all minute books, adopted rules, all association funds and control of them, every contract in force, insurance policies, permits, warranties, and a current homeowner roster with lot numbers.
One item deserves its own line. For associations incorporated after December 31, 2007, the financial records from incorporation through turnover must be audited by an independent certified public accountant, and the statute directs that CPA to examine cash disbursements and paid invoices to confirm expenditures were for association purposes, and to check billings and receipts to determine that the developer was charged and paid the proper assessment amounts. That audit is the best single document for finding out whether the developer paid its own share.
What to check before you sign in an early-phase Osceola community
- Find the establishment ordinance and the acreage. Those two facts tell you whether the six-year or ten-year clock applies and whether the threshold is 250 or 500 qualified electors.
- Pull the qualified-elector determination out of the district’s minutes. Section 189.069(2)(a) requires every district to post its board members with their terms, its full fee and assessment listing with rates and statutory authority, its budget, its most recent audit, its meeting schedule, and each agenda at least seven days ahead, kept online for at least a year.
- Read the recorded declaration for your lot rather than the model-home summary. The conveyance percentages, the developer class voting rights and any assessment guarantee all live there.
- Count the associations. A Florida Division of Corporations search on one Osceola community name, Tohoqua, returns four active not-for-profit corporations, among them Tohoqua Master Association, Inc., document N18000003133 filed March 21, 2018. Which of them you join depends on your lot, and a master plus a neighborhood association means two sets of dues and two sets of rules.
- Check when and where the board meets, and who fills a vacancy. Tohoqua’s published fiscal year 2027 schedule sets regular meetings for the first Wednesday of the month at 9:00 a.m. in Kissimmee, the next on December 2, 2026. Under section 190.006(4) the remaining supervisors appoint a replacement for the rest of an unexpired term, so a seat can change hands with no election at all.
Frequently asked questions
Does closing on a home in an Osceola CDD give me a vote right away?
You get a vote, though probably not the one you expect. Until the district meets the thresholds in section 190.006(3)(a)2, supervisors are still elected by landowners at one vote per acre, and your platted lot counts as one acre. You become a qualified elector only once you are registered to vote at that address, and elector elections begin only after the six-year or ten-year mark and the 250 or 500 elector count are both satisfied. Your district’s annual June determination tells you how close that is.
Can the developer stay on my HOA board after homeowners take control?
Yes, within limits. Section 720.307(3) lets the developer elect at least one director for as long as it holds at least 5 percent of the parcels for sale in the ordinary course of business. After relinquishing control, the developer may vote its remaining interests like any other member, except for the purpose of reacquiring control or selecting a board majority.
My builder owns the lots around me. Do those count toward the 90 percent?
No. Section 720.307(1) states that “members other than the developer” does not include builders, contractors or others who purchase a parcel for the purpose of constructing improvements on it for resale. In a community where a builder holds a large standing lot position, the conveyance count can move much more slowly than the number of finished houses suggests.
Where to go from here
Control and cost are separate questions, and both belong in your diligence. For what a district charges by lot type in one Osceola community, see Tohoqua’s new homes and FY2027 CDD costs by lot. For the assessments that come due the moment your certificate of occupancy is issued, see the assessments due at your CO in Osceola County. For how a district bond is structured across its full term, see what a new Wildwood home owes to 2055, and for the association paperwork a seller has to produce, see Florida HOA disclosure versus documents and estoppel.
If you are weighing an early-phase Osceola community, book a strategy session with our team at mvphomegroup.com/nelsoncruz. We pull the establishment ordinance, the elector determination and the recorded declaration before anyone signs, because those three documents decide who sets your costs for the next several years. This is general information about Florida statutes and public records, not legal advice.
Nelson Cruz, P.A.
Founder & CEO
MVP Home Group, Real Broker LLC
Nelson brings nearly two decades in law enforcement to his work in real estate. View Nelson’s profile or contact our team at 407-901-9939 or [email protected].
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration of a long pale wood board table set for a five-member meeting, with five blank metal nameplate holders, five chairs, gooseneck microphones, a water pitcher and a stack of binders. No readable text. Not a particular property, community or district.