Quote:
Originally Posted by FredJacobs
When I was in basic training in the Army, there was a fellow we nicknamed, "Arnie The Sweat." Every time he heard something, the first words out of his mouth were, "Is that a true rumor or a false one?" The developer owns the property - why can't he do to it as he sees fit? It doesn't surprise me that they are considering apartments. Right now, there is a boom in building Assisted Living and Independent Living facilities. Many homeowners are down-sizing as they get older. He sells Villas for people who don't want large homes or large areas of land to maintain. Many people over 65, who come from rented apartments and never had to worry about maintanence would like to live in The Villages. I view this as a smart business move. He's competing with all of the Independent Living Senior facilities that have sprung up and he has the advantage of Village's amenities.
|
The Villages Holding Company owns most of the property where those other facilities are located. They lease the property, so TVHC profits - it's no competition to him whatsoever.
As for why he can't do whatever he wants: the properties are not sovereign land. They exist within a municipality. Municipalities get to decide what can and cannot be built in the different segments of their boundaries. Something that is zoned for commercial, cannot have a residential dwelling built on it without either a) an exception made, or b) a re-zoning. Vice versa: if it's zoned residential, they can't build a store there, or a rec center.
Not without exceptions through what should be a lengthy process, or a re-zoning of the property, which would (in most of the rest of the country) involve mandatory public hearings since it directly affects property values of homeowners located on the perimeter of the property in question.
No idea what the zoning laws are in the towns and counties where these properties are located, but no - the Developer can't just arbitrarily designate a commercial property as a residential multi-plex without a lot of red tape.
UNLESS - the elected officials in those municipalities are cronies, allies, or directly placed by the Developer. And then, he basically ends up with carte blanch to do whatever he damned well pleases - until those elected officials are voted out by someone OTHER than the Developer.