BUSHNELL
Sumter County commissioners gave a green light Tuesday night for The Villages to form two community development districts. 

The formation of the districts, which serve as the retirement community’s governing agencies, allows officials for The Villages to begin the “footwork and planning” necessary to establish taxes and fees for district services and to assemble governing boards. 

The Villages received unanimous approval from the commission to create a 980-acre residential district, the fifth in the community, and a 452-acre commercial district, which will be called Sumter Landing. 

Oxford environmental activist Dan Farnsworth filed two appeals based on the community’s proposed water use with the Southwest Florida Water Management District last week, blocking development on the 4,677 acres for at least six months. 

“We can do nothing on those sites until those appeals are resolved,” said attorney Nancy Linnan, who represents The Villages. “But the practice of setting up a district takes a long time.” 

Linnan said they are confident a judge will reject Farnsworth’s appeals and allow construction to continue. 

“We fully expect to resolve these matters in six months in our favor,” she said. “That delay has a cost to The Villages and to the community. Approval allows us to move forward.” 

Several residents spoke against The Villages’ request to form the districts, including one man who lives in the retirement community and sits on one of the district boards. 

“All these districts are are a financial tool for the developer and these contractors,” said Russell Day. “You better beware. You have no recourse on the developer and you lose taxes on this. This is going to come back and haunt you.” 

Lake Panasoffkee resident Bill Costner said the county commission is surrendering part of its taxing authority to the community by approving the two ordinances. 

“You’ll lose control of this whole process,” he said. 

Commissioner Benny Strickland said the 1980 Florida statute allowing the formation of the quasi-governing bodies needs modification, but that task belongs to the state Legislature. In the meantime, the statute is the only alternative to providing long-term management of a community the size of The Villages, he said. 

“It needs to be tweaked. It needs changes to it,” Strickland said. “There’s always going to be problems in anything. Everyone has their views. But we have an awful lot to think about. Weighing it all out, I think it’s going to be a plus-plus for the county.” 

Commissioner Billy Rutter said he promised voters 10 years ago that he would work to create more jobs in the county. The Villages, he says, has delivered on his promise. 

“I don’t see why we should deprive them of this,” Rutter said. 

The district has space for 4,700 homes, said Gary Moyer, vice president of Coral Spring’s Severn Trent Environmental Services, who is managing the formation of the districts.

THE VILLAGES - Dan Farnsworth said he well knows his name is not spoken with admiration or respect in the management offices of The Villages. 

The Oxford resident filed three administrative appeals with the Southwest Florida Water Management District last week to The Villages’ plan to build 11,094 homes on land south of County Road 466 in Sumter County. 

Officials for The Villages say Farnsworth’s action will mar the area’s economy and devastate many families who depend on their employment in the retirement community. 

Seventy-five people working in The Villages have already lost their jobs as a result of Farnsworth’s appeals, which stalls development on the 4,677 acres for at least six months during the appeals process, said John Parker, vice president of development for The Villages. Another 3,000 people are also expected to lose their jobs due to construction delays. 

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Parker said. 

Farnsworth, who has received a threatening letter from a major contractor’s law firm in the last two weeks, said he expected a publicity backlash for his stand against the massive retirement community — but not to this extent. 

Some are even saying that Farnsworth is becoming a scapegoat for those in favor of the new development. 

The Sumter County Commission last January approved The Villages’ request to move the 2004 start date to early this year. Work was scheduled to begin next month on the land. 

Commissioner Jim Roberts asked lawyers and officials for The Villages at a meeting last Tuesday what they would do if the commission had denied The Villages’ request. 

The question became: Would the commission, instead of Farnsworth, be blamed for the potential loss of jobs from development delays? 

Tallahassee attorney Marti Chumbler, who helps represent The Villages, said the commission had no legal basis to deny The Villages’ request for an earlier start date. She also said the two issues — Farnsworth’s appeals and the commission’s vote — have little to do with each other, although either action would postpone planned development. 

“The Tri-County Villages and The Villages of Marion has gone much faster than expected,” Chumbler said. “There was no reason for the county commission to delay The Villages. The county commission can’t just make a decision arbitrarily. There would have been no factual basis for denial.” 

Parker also said they never anticipated a “no” vote from the commission. 

“I can’t imagine the county commission saying ‘no,’” he said. “I don’t think there’s any merit to the issue. We’ve been shifting dates (on other development projects) on an annual basis.” 

Farnsworth, for once, agrees with officials for The Villages, but for different reasons. 

“What’s the chances of (the county commission) ever saying ‘no’ to The Villages?” he said. “The chances of the county commission turning down The Villages is like getting hit by an asteroid. I think they’re totally convinced (The Villages is) going to win the lawsuit.” 

Attorneys for The Villages have said that themselves in public meetings. 

“We fully expect to resolve these matters in six months in our favor,” said attorney Nancy Linnan. 

Based on the original May 2000 approval of the overall development plan, The Villages was also just as confident it was going to obtain approval from the commission earlier this year. And that’s what puzzles Farnsworth about accusations against him in the developer’s newspaper that his appeals alone are the catalyst for putting hundreds and potentially thousands of people out of work. Technically, he said, the county commission also could have accomplished that task. 

If the commission did reject The Villages’ request to begin development on the land two years earlier, Chumbler said the community likely would have appealed the decision. But that, too, would have taken time, officials say. 

“We would have to discuss it with our client,” she said. “The point is, (The Villages has) to keep it moving.” 

Roberts said he was puzzled over why Farnsworth and the Sumter Citizens Against Irresponsible Development didn’t initially appeal The Villages’ development request based on its proposed water uses. 

“I’m glad they’re appealing on the water now,” Roberts said. “I always found it peculiar that they (Farnsworth and his group) never appealed on that. I’m very interested to see how (the water district) will decide on this issue. This commission is very interested in the water use.” 

To its credit, The Villages has been praised by water districts officials for its conservation efforts. The district has said the community’s development plans are a paradigm of water conservation. 

The bottom line for the county commission, however, is keeping personal politics out of the picture, said Commissioner Robin Cox. He said there’s too much finger pointing going on between the two. 

“We can’t make this personal,” Cox said. “We don’t need to have a personal agenda.” 

Commissioner Benny Strickland said the commission did have the authority to nix The Villages’ request to move the start date. He also said he believes Farnsworth is acting within his legal rights in objecting to The Villages. 

“I don’t see any problem with what Farnsworth is doing,” he said. “The law is the law, be that as it may. It’s unfortunate that it’s working out this way.” 

Strickland said The Villages may have become a victim of its own efficiency. 

“They’ve become so good at working fast,” he said. “You just can’t crank that ‘assembly line’ back up over night” after delays. 

Strickland said he too worries about the long-term economic effects if The Villages of Sumter gets shelved. 

He said the railroad industries’ exodus from Wildwood forty years ago devastated the city. 

“I was here when it happened,” he said. “They’re just beginning to pull out of it now.” 

A similar “ghost town” scenario, although not as extreme, may hit the county if further development in The Villages is blocked. 

In that case, everyone loses, he said. 

OXFORD All Daniel Farnsforth wants, he says, is for his massive neighbor — The Villages of Sumter — to comply with the same permit regulations that govern other developers.  But Farnsworth’s efforts have earned him the disdain of The Villages and its contractors — including one who says Farnsworth is maliciously trying to stop The Villages’ development.  Representatives of The Villages say they have gone well beyond the letter of the law in meeting

Daniel Farnsworth admits he's trying to halt expansionof The Villages, for reasons related to environmental protection. Staff photo

“We spend more time trying to figure out how to do it right than anything else,” said John Parker, vice president of development for The Villages. “I think we go far beyond what other developers do.” 

Because of Farnsworth’s latest appeals to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, The Villages cannot receive necessary permits south of County Road 466. 

The developer for The Villages received approval from the Sumter County Commission in May 2000 to develop 4,677 acres south of County Road 466. 

Earlier this year, the Sumter Commission also approved re-quests by the retirement community to begin construction on that land two years earlier than the original 2004 start date. 

The commission is expected to decide Tuesday to create two community development districts on the land. 

Farnsworth, who heads Sumter Citizens Against Irresponsible Development, contends that the 11,094-home expansion does not comply with the county’s comprehensive plan and will exacerbate Florida’s water-shortage problems. 

He cites facts and figures on water use and environmental effects that he’s developed from water district reports, county documents, and hydrological and geological studies. He said he finds The Villages’ annoyance with his objections revealing. 

“If they don’t obey the letter of the law, they should expect people to protest,” Farnsworth said. 

The Southwest Florida Water Management District accepted three administrative appeals from Farnsworth Thursday to The Villages’ permit request to begin grading the area. 

The appeals also protest The Villages’ proposed water use. 

The filing of the appeals will postpone work in the area for at least three months as a judge for the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings sets hearing dates, he said. 

Farnsworth originally filed the appeals last January. The water district returned the documents to Farnsworth saying the appeals lacked sufficient information in some areas. 

Now, some officials in The Villages say the hearings could postpone new development in the community by a year, costing the developer upwards of $100,000 per day. 

In fact, Farnsworth has received a letter from a contractor’s Atlanta law firm threatening legal action if Farnsworth continues his protesting of The Villages. 

“Your acts are designed to intentionally and maliciously interfere with the development plans of The Villages, including its contract with SSI (Specialized Services Inc.). Be advised that SSI is conducting an investigation into your actions,” the Atlanta firm of Shapiro Fussell Wedge Smotherman Martin & Price, LLP stated in a certified letter to Farnsworth and others in his environmental group last week. 

“For every day SSI’s work is suspended, it incurs damages for idle equipment in excess of $49,000 per day,” the letter stated. “Be advised that SSI intends to hold you responsible for all damages arising from the suspension of work.” 

Farnsworth said he views the letter as an act of intimidation. 

“I’m going to ignore it. This is the first time they’ve done anything to me in a threatening manner,” he said. “There’s nothing we’re doing that’s not legal.” 

“If they have a beef, it’s with The Villages because they told them to start the grading,” he said. 

Farnsworth added that he found the letter surprising because his relations with other attorneys and experts for The Villages have always been cordial. 

However, he said he anticipated retaliatations of some kind from The Villages or its representatives sooner or later. 

The letter states that the law firm will rely on what it calls a similar case in Putnam County, where a local group of residents was sued by the Florida Fern Growers Association. A judge ruled on behalf of the association. 

“This case involved challenges to consumptive use permits,” the letter stated. “SSI believes the (case) to be good law. Upon showing that your challenge is in bad faith, SSI intends to use this case as the basis for a lawsuit against you. The damages SSI is incurring are considerable and flow from your acts.” 

Farnsworth, who moved to Oxford from West Palm Beach 12 years ago, said he’s taken up the cause of opposing further expansion of the gated retirement community based on the shared sentiments of many in communities surrounding The Villages. 

“Sumter County is a rural county,” he said. “(The Villages is) coming here and trying to develop, and the people don’t know what to do about it.” 

Some of Farnsworth’s critics say he should leave the area. They accuse him of caring little about the jobs the community creates and the people who are employed by contractors of The Villages. 

If development of The Villages were to stop, hundreds of people, many in construction-related jobs, would be out of work, The Villages says. 

Some members of the Sumter County business community agree. 

“This is affecting a lot of workers over there,” said Cindy Brooker, who owns a Wildwood Chevrolet dealership. “If all of those people lose jobs, it could affect us all.” 

Brooker said the economy of Lake and Sumter counties depends largely on The Villages, and the entire area will feel a loss if the development is successfully blocked. 

“We’ve already been slapped in the face by Sept. 11,” she said. “He needs to consider the economic disaster this will cause.” 

Parker said postponing expansion of The Villages, one of the area’s largest employers, would put a significant dent on the local economy. He said about 6,000 people work for The Villages, for contractors for The Villages or on the community’s property. 

“We feel (halting expansion of the development is) going to have a tremendous effect on the community as a whole,” Parker said. “It’s an unfortunate situation what Farnsworth is doing. It appears a personal desire of several people that The Villages stop developing.” 

But Farnsworth said, “Construction is not a permanent job. It is not forever. They know they’re not going to work for the next 20 years.” 

“I really don’t believe people are going to lose their jobs because of this,” Farnsworth said. “I just believe they’re crying wolf.” 

Parker said the delays will put more than just construction workers out of work. Workers in related occupations won’t be getting paychecks, either. 

“We’re not 100 percent sure what Dan’s problem is,” Parker said. 

“We’ve looked at (Farnsworth’s) petitions. We feel they meet the points of the law. But we obviously take exceptions and we have total confidence we will prevail. We feel we played the game by the rules.” 

Farnsworth admits to claims in the letter from the Atlanta law firm that he is “intentionally” trying to halt expansion of The Villages — but for the sake of Florida’s water problems and preserving the county’s rural nature, not out of maliciousness. 

“They’re right. I’ve intentionally opposed them, because their amendments aren’t in compliance,” he said. “They (contractors for The Villages) are the ones breaking the rules.” 

Officials of The Villages note that Farnsworth has lost every bid in the past eight years to halt expansion of the community. 

May be this upright citizen doesn't want unhappy neighbors? Considering the many negative headlines "The Villages" created - see Orlando Sentinel article-series "You Move In. They Cash In" - may be he just doesn't want another dictatorship in his neighborhood? Many homeowners living in this Community Development District are unhappy and feel the disadvantages of living in these associations haven't been properly disclosed to them according to Florida Statutes. But once you live in these associations, there is no real way out, since most courts are considering the statement at the office of the title company :"Please initial here that you received the CC&Rs", a valid private contract. And who can afford to risk a civil law-suit against this deep pocket industry?

When will our elected officials be willing to stand up and tell the industry: "The buck stops here!" Possibly not as long as the industry is waving large campaign fund checks in front of their faces. Then quickly all promises to voters and constituents seem to be forgotten.

May be the month of November will be a great time to refresh their memories?