Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
My emails to Gary Search and Craig Estep are on their way. I hope all of you are taking the time to let them know how you feel about them caving in to the Morse pressure so quickly. Only a couple of months since the election and those two already appear to be in the Morse’s pocket. Somebody has to feed that fourth generation of the Morse family. Based on the new commissioner’s campaign, I never thought they’d flip and vote to have it come out of our pockets so quickly. Disgusting.
We’ve been in The Villages for sixteen years and probably don’t have that many more to go. But I will say this to those of you reading this that may not have made up your mind to buy and move here — consider the opinion of a longtime resident.
We've enjoyed our first fifteen years living here. But in the last year or so it’s become very apparent that the relationship between the Developer and the residents is changing in a big way. The quick and secretive decisions to increase building density and grab for cash flow from many more apartments, the disgusting decision to shift the cost of infrastructure in newly developed areas to ALL Sumter County residents with a huge real estate tax increase, and the out-of-control pace of development.
This isn’t the same type of community as it was under the ownership of Harold Schwartz and his son Gary Morse. The three siblings running The Villages now are nearing retirement. Who knows who and how many of the incoming fourth generation of the family will be running the place for the next few decades? But one thing is for sure — there are a whole lot more Morse mouths to feed. And it’s pretty clear the money will be coming out of all Sumter County resident’s pockets!
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Hopefully, residents will heed your request and encourage Commissioners. Estep and Search to keep their campaign promise and keep it NOW, not some time in the future. All three new Commissioners (the EMS Team) are under tremendous pressure from the Developer not to do so ever--neither now nor in the future. The Developer's pressure includes propaganda disguised as news in his newspaper, attacks on the reputations of the EMS team, packing the Commission meeting, and filling the meeting's parking lot with construction vehicles to crowd out the public.
The delay in implementing reasonable impact fees for the Developer and a corresponding property-tax cut for residents is putting millions of dollars in the Developer's pocket at our expense.
Hopefully, residents will also give Commissioner Miller an attaboy for trying to keep his promise to the voters despite the Developer's pressure.