The Villages, Florida

The Villages is a master-planned, age-restricted community located in Central Florida, between Ocala and Orlando.

With the exception of small parts which overlap existing cities, the majority of the community is located outside of any city jurisdiction.^[1] The majority of The Villages is in Sumter County, with smaller parts in neighboring Lake and Marion Counties.

Originally formed in the 1960s as a mobile home park called Orange Blossom Gardens, the development grew substantially in the mid-1980s due to the marketing success of H. Gary Morse, son of one of the original founders. Morse realized that the most successful developments featured well-maintained amenities and nearby extensive commercial development (e.g. grocery stores, restaurants, etc.) and began to purchase large tracts of land in adjacent areas.

Morse also took advantage of unique provisions of Florida law which allows his company to essentially run the area as a mini-government in perpetuity. The Villages is divided primarily into 14 "community development districts" (which are governed by residents, handle local issues such as paving and street lights, and are paid for by special assessments included within the property tax bills).^[2] However, The Villages is also under the jurisdiction of five development districts which are structured in such a manner that they have NO residents (only commercial and developer-owned property); as such, Morse's company has the legal right to nominate company employees or affiliates to the districts' boards. These larger boards maintain the numerous amenities for which The Villages is world-renowned (such as over 60 golf courses, both full and "executive" courses along with specialty: for many years the advertising slogan was "Free Golf For Life", technically inaccurate as the courses are paid for by monthly amenity fees charged to each property owner).

The community is age-restricted as allowed by Federal housing law: at least one person age 55 or over must reside in any home, and no person under age 19 may do so except to visit (for no more than 30 days per year) or in cases of hardship.

It is one of the fastest-growing areas in Florida; its popularity (it bills itself as "Florida's Friendliest Hometown") has given it the nicknames of "Disney World For Seniors" and "The Bubble" (the terms are used both affectionately and pejoratively, depending on one's view of retirement communities).

The Villages is a strongly conservative area – Morse himself was a major donor to the Republican Party and served one time as a Florida Elector to the Electoral College – and has become a popular point for conservative political rallies (especially as Florida is almost evenly divided politically, making it a swing state in national elections): in 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd estimated at over 60,000. Not surprisingly liberals decry the community and the concept of senior-only communities that aren't traditional assisted-living (and aren't predominantly liberal): after his neighbors relocated from New England to The Villages, author Andrew D. Blechman wrote an "expose" on the community ^[3] which claimed to show its "hostility toward Democrats", "dislike of families" (comparing it to similar communities in Arizona, such as Youngtown - which lost its senior-only status due to legal issues - and the Sun City developments - where enmity exists between the Sun City residents and the larger community), and its "rampant underbelly of non-stop sex" (a popular urban legend is that The Villages has the highest per-capita rates of sexually transmitted disease in the country; however, it has actually seen an increase in STD transmission).

References[edit]

External Links[edit]

• The Villages
• The Villages Community Development District (the website provides public information on all Community Development Districts located within The Villages area)