Harold Schwartz's Biggest nightmare
 

Harold Schwartz went to great effort and thousands of dollars saving trees in Florida. He designed home sights around trees. Today that mindset is no longer the standard. Even in Marion County in the Villages, One person is on a crusade to cut down every tree he sees, pitiful to say the least.

They cut down a lot of hundred or more year old oak trees on CR101 which broke my heart.

For a developer who highlights its Audubon awards for golf courses, and who brags about its water conservation efforts, it seems strange to me that they "clear cut" the sites of the new villages south of 44. The bulldozer bills must be staggering.

Who would that one person be and how do you know that? What has this to do with Harold Schwartz? I would think that his worst nightmare would be for harm to come to his family and loved ones. This statement might be overly dramatic or even wrong.

Here are my feelings on live oak trees. They are beautiful. They are majestic. They are protected to some degree by laws. They are also dirty to have in your yard and dangerous growing close to your home after they reach a certain size.

During last years Hurricane Irma, a huge Live Oak Tree fell that was growing right next to Laurel Manor Rec Center. It fortunately fell at night and toward the parking lot, minimizing damage that could have been terrible if it had happened when people were there.

No doubt trees are beautiful, but Americans have been clearing them to build structures for centuries.

Remember the Golden Rule ... He that holds the Gold makes the Rules.

Those sites were not cleared of trees, take a look at the building going on north of Warm Springs, you will see that they are building around the trees, same as they did in Fenney, DeSoto, and McClure. I'm sure there were some trees that had to be removed for placement of infrastructure and building however they plant several trees around each home they build and put in thousands of palm trees, mossy oaks, and pines down here. The areas that look "clear cut" were fields before the bulldozers came in. And for water conservation there are an abundance of retention ponds strategically placed. The large oaks and multitude of water front homes are some of the assets of the south of 44 villages.

Lady Lake has a very strict tree policy ... see LaZamora - beautiful village. Sumter used to be very good, but they are relaxing their standards. We have a new "thing" in our village. They cannot cut the tree, so they "top" it, they cut off all the branches and the top and leave the trunk. Of course the tree does grow back to some extent, but never as beautiful as it once was. People always manage to find a way.

If you have a problem with oak trees being dirty and a problem, why would you buy a home with oak trees?

Folks are quick on the trigger when it comes to evoking Harold Swartz's name to poo poo deviations from the original concept. Is he spinning in his grave because the thousands and thousands of homes in The Villages are not double wides?

OP, I don’t know who this “one tree cutting person” is but I can only tell you what I have observed over the years regarding the saving of trees in The Villages. Starting with some of the latest development, in Fenney I see many old oak trees that were saved. Along Buena Vista near Sumter Landing, I observe many very large oaks that have been saved. As a golfer I see many large beautiful trees that were saved while developing both executive and championship golf courses. Only a few examples but enough here to make a point that Mr. Schwartz in my opinion would be proud these and other trees were saved. I wasn’t here when the “historical side” of The Villages was developed but I would be willing to bet that some trees had to be removed to make a street or lay out the golf courses and houses so Villagers could work, live, play and enjoy the village lifestyle.

If you think what has been and is being built isn't part of Schwartz's plan/dream you've over looked the timeline of The Villages development. All of the lands that make up The Villages all the way down to Brownwood and Rohan Rec Center were acquired well before his death and the CDDs up to 10 were established just a few months after his death. He was a major part of the planning of what The Village is today. He was probably greasing the ways for the rest of this juggernaut south of 44 also, land deals like this are not done in a day, they take years of negotiations and planning.

As far as the trees being cleared one only needs to look at the historical images on Google Earth Pro or the Sumter County Property Appraiser web site to see what things looked like 10 or 20 years ago. This entire area was pasture lands and watermelon field. I commuted between Orlando and Gainesville every week in 1980 on US441, much of it back then was 2 lane road, Leesburg stopped before 441 met 27, Wildwood, Fruitland Park, and Lady Lake were a gas station or two. The area between 441 and I-75 from the Turnpike and Ocala was dirt poor and depressed, the biggest industry was some horse farms at the northern end. A lot of economic good and thousands of job have come from The Villages. The Villages is doing most things right, if you want to see what happens with things are poorly planned look no farther than Lehigh Acres outside Fort Meyers and all the problems it has gone through.

Yes there were other trees and some were cleared, the unhealthy ones, most of the healthy ones were kept and thousands more have been planted and are now mature. The same is happening in the Fenney-DeLuna-Bradford areas, sickly trees and scrub is being cleared and the healthy ones are being saved. From a business standpoint it is in their best interest to save as many trees as practicable and use them in their overall landscaping and ambiance for the communities they build. A winding community with lots of trees has greater economic value (read - more profitable) than one that is simply checkerboard roads and packed in houses even though the actual number of homes will be less. The Developer also plants a lot of new and semi-mature trees during the development of the properties in addition to their preservation efforts. Much of the trees you see at the northern end of The Villages is a result of those efforts and 10-20 years of additional growth.

The clear cut development going on in other areas of the State of Florida don't take as conservative of an approach as here in Sumter County. In south Florida the clearing and building is devastating to watch. They also don't take the water conservation efforts as far as it is taken in The Villages, the conservation efforts are a recognized industry model for how much can be done to conserve.

Many complain about the growth of The Villages being out of control, hardly so, the big advantage of having one large and well planned development and developer is control of the sprawl that usually happens. Go to the Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, or south Florida areas and drive around. It is a true mess, urban sprawl has run a muck. Over a thousand people a day, everyday, move to Florida, about 25 of them move to The Villages.

The Villages today isn't Mr. Schwartz's nightmare, it is his dream that he planned, and them some.

I wonder what Mr. Schwartz would think of the transformation of his beloved Katie Belle's. Open to the public, but closed on Sundays and Mondays.
What a shame.....it's all about the Benjamins!

It is a business and it can only lose money so long before either changing the way the business is run or shutting it down completely. It's still enjoyable going the KB's once in awhile.

Yeah, when are people gonna stop going into business just make money!?!

I think it’s funny that people think Harold can still have nightmares. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Talk about my nightmares
 

Imagine the INMATES running this place?