Neighbors showed up in force Friday morning to support a Villager battling to save landscaping in peril due to a troll’s anonymous complaint.
Thomas Rinker, of 1462 Pelican Path in the Village of Sunset Pointe, spent about $4,000 to put in landscaping 15 years ago on property he believed was under his ownership.
Several months ago, an anonymous complaint was received alleging he put the landscaping in the Sumter County right of way. Rinker claims he was unfairly targeted by a troll who made the anonymous complaint.
Rinker said he is caught in a snafu involving conflicting paperwork and mixed signals received from Sumter County officials.
His neighbors clearly support that position, demonstrated by many of them showing up at Friday morning’s Community Development District 5 Board of Supervisors meeting. They all obediently followed District guidelines dictating face masks and social distancing in the meeting at Savannah Center.
Attorney Mark Brionez cautioned the board against hearing specific information about Rinker’s situation, because it is an open deed compliance case. It is likely to come back before the board in June.
Residents complained that years ago Community Watch patrolled the neighborhoods and looked for deed restrictions. Several years ago that system changed and it was converted to a complaint-driven process, that more often than not is anonymous.
CDD 5 Board Chairman Gary Kadow said it appears trolls have hijacked the process, to the detriment of The Villages.
“When I first got here Community Watch checked for violations. We can’t have a vigilante group going around and searching for violations to turn them in. They ride around in a golf cart with a clipboard. It’s at the point now where we are flooded with these things. It’s not the process per se, it’s the way this vigilante group is riding around and manipulating the process,” Kadow said.
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