A community development district supervisor is making the case that rental units in The Villages ought to carry a heavier burden when it comes to amenity fees.
Community Development District 2 Supervisor Bryan Lifsey outlined his thoughts in a position paper ahead of the board of supervisor’s meeting set for 9:30 a.m. Friday at the District Office at Lake Sumter Landing.
“My thought on amenity fees is that they were designed with Village residents in mind. Yes, we jumped in with both feet when we moved here. We tried ‘everything’ once, the good things twice, and then settled into a routine of amenity usage,” Lifsey said.
Renters, on the other hand, come here for a “vacation,” he said.
“They try everything they can and keep it up as long as they can. On average, they are high users of our amenity facilities,” he wrote in the paper.
Every few months the rental units turn over.
“The rental property gets new tenants who start the cycle all over again. These new tenants are not new owners, there is no resale involved. There are also numerous very short term rentals available in The Villages. I read recently that there were several hundred Villages address rentals available on AirBNB. These probably do not get Villages ID cards such as longer term renters may get but they certainly contribute to congestion, traffic, and the use of public facilities such as our squares,” he said.
Last month, the Project Wide Advisory Committee and Amenity Authority Committee held a first-ever joint meeting in which a long-term budget forecast laid out the sobering reality of flattening revenues and climbing expenses. Many of the elected representatives in that meeting expressed support for raising the deferral rate or “cap” on amenity rates.
Lifsey believes all rental properties should be paying amenity fees based on the $159 prevalent rate.
“Whenever a homeowner ‘surrenders’ their Villages ID card rights to a renter, that home should go onto the $159 prevalent rate track. I believe our District Government staff can track that,” he said.
However the AirBNB rentals would be more difficult, he admitted.
“For AirBNB and similar rentals, I confess I have no good answer,” Lifsey said.
Villagers will have a number of opportunities in the near future to offer their thoughts on the amenity deferral rate. The topic is on the agendas for the following meetings:
• PWAC which meets at 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 8 at the District Office.
• AAC which meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 10 at the Savannah Center.
• A second joint workshop between PWAC and the AAC is set for 9 a.m. Monday, April 15 at Laurel Manor Recreation Center.
All meetings are open to the public.
