Quote:
Originally Posted by gadaboutgal
Take the ridiculous gates down--they were purposely put up so that The Villages could claim to be a "gated" community. I would really like to know where the legal authority is granted to The Villages to put up the barriers on public roads. Would someone be able to point me to the law providing them this right? And if the gates are on public roads, then why are the citizens of The Villages required to pay for their upkeep? Why are they not funded by the government?
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Do you drive a golf cart? Do you use the MM Trails in any way? I'm guessing that you don't if you think the gates are useless. How many Villagers do you think would be injured/killed while crossing roads between the MM Trails if there were no gates? Can you imagine the backups on the MM trails if cart drivers, bikers and walkers/runners had to wait for a break in traffic to cross every major road in TV? Can you imagine the backups that would occur for vehicular traffic if every other car stopped to let carts pass in front of them (which would inevitably happen)?
Do you think the roundabouts would work as efficiently if there were no gates to break up and slow down traffic exiting various Villages onto Buena Vista/Morse? The gates are there for traffic control and security (cameras). And they fulfill that purpose very well.
The upgraded cameras that have been/are being installed assist in tracking down the gate crashers. And gate crashers pay a big fine (I heard $250.00). The gate arms are designed to easily break away so as to alleviate as much damage as possible. Many times, they simply just have to be put back on and adjusted. However, over time the arms and internal mechanisms do sustain damage. I suspect the collected fines from the gate crashers go along way in fixing and maintaining the gates.
The reason that The Villages is allowed to put up gates on public roads is because anyone can enter by pushing the button. I guess the "legal authority" comes from the local counties/municipalities that agreed to the gates in the first place.
And finally, I don't know about you...but I never had the impression that TV was a gated community. I figured that out the first time I drove up to a gate and pushed a button to get in. Even if I hadn't figured that out the first time I visited, I certainly did enough research before buying here to have known whether or not I was buying in a gated community.