[Goldwingnut]

The areas of The Villages south of SR-44 are different in a great many ways:
the homes have a lot more flexibility of design and colors
cart paths and walking trails are separated in much of the area
there is more green and natural areas established and preserved
the overall homes/acre is much lower (total CDD acreage not assessable acreage)

Because of some of these differences there is considerably more areas that the CDD has to maintain (more green space), this comes at a considerable expense. In order to help control these expenses some different landscaping and maintenance planning is required.

One of the big things done was to change the "grass" that has been planted to different species and have a less aggressive maintenance requirement. If you will notice along many of the walking trails the grass planted changes after the first 3 or so feet of width. This different species provides ground cover while requiring less maintenance to remain healthy - i.e. it doesn't get cut every week. This is some of what you are seeing around the ball fields.

In the below image is a summary of the 12 residential CDD maintenance budgets.

The acreage shown is the "Assessable Acreage" or those acres that can be assessed the maintenance assessment each year, this does not reflect the actual total acreage of each CDD. Each CDD has many acres that must be maintained by the CDD that cannot be assessed, this is the open green spaces we all enjoy. In the case of CDD-12 this unassessable acreage is a very large number and makes the actual CDD acreage larger than any other in The Villages (not looking at CDD13 yet). IF cost savings measures such as the landscaping selection and maintenance had not been as closely addressed as it has the numbers for CDD12 would be much larger and the maintenance assessments would be significantly larger than any other in The Villages.

Bottom line is that the area you live in (CDD12) looks and is maintained a lot differently that any other in The Villages, you will see grasses in the open/natural areas higher than the manicured lawns adjoining them.

If you do feel that an area is not receiving the required maintenance then District Property Management is the place to call at 352-753-4022