Here is a summary of the lawsuit settlement, taken from the POA website:
http://www.poa4us.org/bulletins_file...ml#article%205
Summary of the Recent Lawsuit Settlement.
Here is a summary of the main points of the recent lawsuit settlement with the developer covering the area of The Villages north of highway 466 in the VCCDD administration area:
1. The total value of the lawsuit settlement amounts to $50,423,544, paid as follows: $39,823,544 in cash is to be paid by the developer into the amenity fund of the VCCDD and an additional $7,000,000 in cash paid by the Developer was ordered by the Court for legal fees and expenses. Further, an additional $3,600,000 was identified in annual VCCDD budgets as money which should have been placed in the Renewal and Replacement Reserve account, and this was officially moved to the R & R account, thus insuring that these funds will also be under the direct control of the soon-to-be-elected Amenity Authority Committee (AAC) described below.
2. The Developer has already made an immediate payment of $11,803,168. It was agreed that $2,812,295 would be used immediately to pay off the remaining debt on the Paradise Recreation Center renovation project. The remaining $8,990,873 was negotiated to provide $4,243,600 for renovation of the 8 miles of recreation trails north of CR 466 and $4,757,273 for the Renewal and Replacement Reserve fund. The actual decision on how to spend this remaining $8,990,873 will be determined by the AAC.
3. Over the next 13 years, the Developer will pay a total of $28,020,376 into the amenity fund of the VCCDD with the first payment in the amount of $1,748,659 in December of 2008. The largest annual amount is in 2018 in the amount of $3,104,103 and the smallest is $166,695 which will occur in 2020, the last year of the payments. This additional funding was required until the year 2020, at which time the reduction in bond debt, due to scheduled amortized pay-off of some of the earlier bonds, is calculated to be sufficiently reduced for regular amenity fees to provide adequate funds.
These funds were secured to assure monies for the services that had been reduced (pool monitors, decrease in Neighborhood Watch services, recreation facility monitors, etc.) and to pay expenses that were not budgeted at the time of the revenue bond issues (Renewal and Replacement Reserves, recreation trail and tunnel maintenance and reserves, retention pond maintenance and repair, and additional funds for unforeseen circumstances such as substantial increases in the minimum wage).
4. The settlement also includes the creation (which occurred last month) by Interlocal Agreement of an Amenity Authority Committee (AAC), whose members will be one resident, elected by residents, in land owner elections, in CDDs 1, 2, 3, 4 and the Lake County portion of The Villages. One member of the VCCDD Board of Supervisors will also serve on the six-member Committee. The AAC will have: (a) discretion over expenditures of all non-bond required amenity funds and the rate setting of amenity facility user fees; (b) operational control over the amenity facilities and services; (c) approval or disapproval over future debt secured by amenity fees or facilities, sale, assignment or trade of amenity facilities, and future areas to be brought within the VCCDD Service Territory (excepting no more than 300 additional dwelling units without AAC approval); and (d) authority to establish a maximum amenity fee for the VCCDD Service Territory.
5. An agreement that the number of executive golf tee-times reserved for sales purposes for prospective residents shall not exceed a monthly maximum of 325 of the approximately 25,000 tee-times available on the VCCDD-operated executive courses.