The Villages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Villages is a large community for adults aged 55 and over, in the "horse country" of central Florida in the United States. The Villages is located about 20 miles south of Ocala and 60 miles northwest of Orlando, spanning parts of Lake, Marion, and Sumter Counties. The current population is around 50,000 residents, and is expected to grow to over 100,000 by 2010.
The Villages is a golf cart community, meaning golf carts may be legally driven on the roads 24 hours a day. The Villages has its own daily paper (The Village Daily Sun), its own radio station (640 AM) and a cable channel (The Villages News Network). These media properties are owned by the developer of The Villages. While they are excellent resources for residents of The Villages, they tend to vigorously support the developers positions. This regularly affects their coverage of certain events affecting the residents of The Villages.
The Villages was developed using Florida's special purpose local governments known as Community Development Districts (CDD). In The Villages, there are 2 classes of CDDs. One class of CDD covers the areas where residents own homes. These CDDs provide and maintain the roads and transportation paths, storm water systems and structures, curb and gutter and street lights. The costs of building and maintaining this infrastructure are paid for by assessments, a once-a-year charge which appears on the residents' annual property tax bill. Residents elect the members of the Board Of Supervisors for the District in which they reside.
The other class of CDD is the special central Community Development Districts : the Village Center Community Development District (VCCDD) and the Sumter Landing Community Development District (SLCDD). Recreation centers and executive golf courses are owned by these districts. Residents pay monthly amenities fees to these districts in exchange for the use of these facilities. Even though the recreation centers and the executive golf courses may be located in the CDD in which residents live, the facilities are owned by the special central CDDs, and not the residents. No residents live in these special CDDs, and in both of these CDDs the developer holds the majority of the votes. This means that the developer decides who runs these special CDDs and the properties that they own.
After building the recreation centers and the executive golf courses, the developer sells these facilities to the 2 special central CDDs at a price agreed upon by the developer and the developer-selected supervisors of the special CDDs. Residents have no say as to what facilities are built and how much is paid for the facilities.
A point of contention in The Villages is that the developer-controlled special central CDDs pays the developer an inflated value for the recreation centers and the executive golf courses. Approximately 60% of the monthly amenity fees paid by the residents is used to retire the bonds issued by the 2 special central CDDs to pay the developer for these facilities.
There are 2 homeowners associations in The Villages. The Property Owners Association (POA) is the original homeowner association. The Villages Homeowners Association (VHA) was started by the Developer after the Developer became dissatisfied with the Developer's relationship with the Property Owners Association (POA).
The development includes nineteen recreation centers, thirteen executive golf courses, numerous pools, and six championship golf centers.
The Villages is home to a family of charter schools, encompassing grades k - 12. Their mascot is the buffalo. These schools are funded by the builder and are for the children of workers of The Villages and the surrounding area.
[edit] STD'S
The Villages has been reported as one of the fastest growing areas for STD's in the state of Florida.
