I agree with Gracie.....having the residents in charge is a slippery slope. It creates an expectation that those elected will always work in the best interests of the residents. The posts on this site clearly show that there are residents that are only in favor of reducing costs or cutting back. When the Goldwingnuts of this place retire from public service or are defeated the residents hand over their future. The Developer is the only one with enough skin in the game to protect his family's vision and our lifestyle.

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Excellent summary, GWN.

How does this play out long-term when there are multiple local governments (CDDs) handling the amenities for different parts of TV?

Currently, the amenities fee is uniform across all portions of TV, but from reading your explanation I don't see a reason they need to be. As TV grows, I could see costs being different for different regions/governments and the proper thing to do would be for the citizens of each region to only pay what is appropriate for their amenities. Maintaining uniformity across "The Villages" could cause some regions to have too much money and others to under run. It seems that naturally the amenity fees will diverge over time.

Ah, the joys of growth.

While the fees are not uniform across The Villages they are close and almost self regulating based on the contracts we all signed. When a home is sold the rate the new owner pays is the prevailing rate, which mitigates the rate disparity and possible divergence. The Deferral Rate to an extent also helps to equalize the rates at the top end. This of course this goes back to my previous post, who sets the prevailing rate?

Right now there are only 2 "regions" for amenities, north of CR466 administered by the AAC/VCCDD and south of CR466 administered by PWAC/SLCDD, there are joint agreements in place that ensure everyone is treated equally regardless of of the location where they live. One having too much money or not enough to cover their expenses has not and is not anticipated to be an issue assuming the Deferral Rate issue is resolved later this month.

There's actually a 3rd "region" for amenities, south of SR44, the area where the Developer still ownes the amenities, not the local government. Fortunately all 3 "regions" work together very well to make all of this seamless to the residents. The development company work with the Recreation and other departments associated with the amenities to ensure the consistency. The Developer owned the amenities contracts for these areas as well as the amenities themselves but pays the SLCDD for staffing and operating them. No sale of the amenities south SR44 to the SLCDD has been discussed to my knowledge but one would have to assume that at some point it will happen as it would allow the development company to focus on their core business of development and would free up a substantial amount of working capital. This happened about 2 years ago and a good guess would be that it will happen again in about 5 years when they complete the areas north of CR470 and start on the next big phase of The Villages.

Having different rates for residents based on "their amenities" doesn't work as we all have equal access to all the amenities regardless of where you live. What would stop someone from buying in Village "A" because the rates are lower and using the amenities in the villages with the higher rates.

We are very fortunate in our amenities and their costs, it is a very well managed system with the biggest problems being a lack of understanding by many residents on how the system is works and is funded.