COURTESY : The Daily Commercial

By Megan Shannon

Published June 29, 2006 

THE VILLAGES — Property Owners Association President Joe Gorman told a group of excited POA members to mark their calendars for the Village Center District meeting Friday to demand answers.

Villages resident Elaine Dreidame pioneered an informal investigation on whether residents are essentially being charged twice for the maintenance of the recreation trails along El Camino Real and Buena Vista Boulevard, north of County Road 466.

“Anyone who’s heard of this issue is in support of it,” she said.

Each resident pays The Village Center District amenity fees, which pay for recreation in The Villages. They also pay a monthly maintenance fee to their separate numbered districts.

  
According to Dreidame and those who support her research, the trails that The Village Center District refer to as transportation paths are actually the recreational trails that The Villages of Lake Sumter Inc. promised each resident would be maintained with the amenities fees. The Center District argues that these trails are not included and must be paid for by each numbered district.

“We have been taking whatever they give us,” Dreidame said. “This is either a breech of contract on the behalf of the VCCDD or it’s consumer fraud on the developer for advertising the maintenance to be covered and then revoking it.”

Dreidame said she became aware of the issue when residents of Community Development District 3 were given the option to choose one of three different levels of maintenance on their trails all with varying price tag. Upon further research, Dreidame found that a map produced by the developer positively identifies these trails as recreation trails and sales literature provided by the developer states that recreation trails are covered by monthly amenity fees.

This issue, tabled from the June 2 meeting, will be discussed by The Village Center District on June 30 at 8:30 a.m. District Manager Pete Wahl could not be reached for comment.