A Village of Fenney couple with a $525,000 home say they can’t get out of their driveway and pleaded for help from the Community Development District 12 Board of Supervisors.
This past October, Tim and Jo Ann Webber bought their home on Abney Avenue near Fenney Putt & Play. They had lived for five years in the Village of Hillsborough, sold that home and moved back to Lafayette, Ind. for a year. In 2019, they moved back to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
Their otherwise happy return to The Villages has been marred by the daily parking problems near the Putt & Play facility in Fenney.
“I am here to get some help,” Tim Webber told the CDD 12 board Thursday morning. “This problem is not going to go away.”
He said he’s not against the Putt & Play and thinks it is a wonderful facility. However, the lack of parking for those who want to visit the Putt & Play is a real problem in his neighborhood, he said.
He said the parking offered six blocks away at a recreation center isn’t an attractive option, so many people who drive their cars to the Putt & Play are parking on – and clogging up – the side streets, Tim Webber said.
He said there is not enough handicapped parking and dropoffs of the handicapped and children are creating a dangerous situation.
Jo Ann Webber showed the supervisors photographs of some of the parking offenses. She said she encountered a man who had a “real cocky attitude” and he nearly threw a golf club at her.
One day she was trying to get to an appointment, but a vehicle had blocked her driveway.
“I ended up missing my appointment because I couldn’t get out of my own driveway,” she said.
Tim Webber said the parking headaches have diminished their retirement dream.
“The people who bought along our street bought in good faith with hard-earned money. This has got to be addressed. Make it fair for everybody. Not just the people who live on the street. For the people in wheelchairs, for kids and families,” he said.
However, the couple was told that CDD 12 has no authority over the situation.
“We do not have the ability to regulate parking on a city street. We don’t have the authority to erect a sign in a right of way. We don’t own the facility,” said District Manager Richard Baier.
Last year, the Wildwood Commission passed an ordinance to address the parking situation, but at the time indicated that the police weren’t likely to engage in a ticket-writing spree. The Webbers said they have spoken with Wildwood Commissioner Joe Elliott and at times have been in touch with police.
“It’s not right to spend a half million dollars on a home and I can’t get out of my driveway,” Tim Webber said.
