A neighborhood battle is heating up over a garage addition in The Villages.
Martin Eisner, who owns three homes in The Villages, received approval from the Architectural Review Committee for the addition to his garage at 2370 Five Forks Trail.
You can review the garage expansion plan at this link: Eisner garage project at 2370 Five Forks Trail
It appears that Eisner is not living at his Village of Tall Trees home, where the garage is being extended. The property tax bill for that home is mailed to another home Eisner owns on Jebber Loop in the Village of Hemingway.
When originally proposed last year, Eisner’s garage addition was denied by the ARC because it was determined that the aesthetics were not harmonious with the neighborhood. The ARC also wanted dimensions of the project related to the property line.
A subsequent application from Eisner was approved by the ARC.
The work taking place at the home prompted 50 residents of the neighborhood to show up at the April 3 meeting of the ARC. The group, wearing bright green CARE (Citizens Against Reckless Expansion) lapel pins wanted to express their dissatisfaction with the ARC’s approval of the project. The group’s leader Karen Phillips spoke again this past Wednesday before the ARC, once again stating her displeasure with the project. She also attended Friday’s Community Development District 6 board meeting, but did not speak.
Phillips had put signs in her yard that read “The Villages Prison Industrial Model 2019” and “No to our Veterans … Yes to This?”
Two anonymous complaints about Phillips’ signs were received Thursday, earning her a visit from Community Standards. She moved the signs to her garage.
Phillips has indicated her non-compliant signs might be going up again to protest her neighbor’s “non-compliant” garage. She also said CARE will soon launch a website.
Eisner’s contractor is Jerome Masonry. The owner, Jerome Wilson, was at the center of an epic 2015 battle over a driveway extension in the Village of Bridgeport at Miona Shores. In that case, the homeowner wanted a garage large enough to accommodate five vehicles. Ultimately, an appeal to the Community Development District 6 board resulted in a liberalization of the ARC guidelines and the driveway extension was permitted.
