The Community Development District 1 Board of Supervisors is encouraging residents to attend a meeting in May on the policy on signage in homeowners’ yards.
CDD 1 Chair Kathy Porter said she wants residents to attend the 8 a.m. May 14 meeting at Savannah Center so supervisors can hear their opinions.
CDD 1 has a rule prohibiting signage, but decided in 2013 to stop enforcing the rule. Among the concerns at the time was an opinion from legal counsel that declared, “The constitutionality of the regulation is questionable.”
Porter said she has received complaints from residents about the proliferation of signs in CDD 1. She suggested it may be time to start enforcing the sign rule that is already on the books.
Supervisor Judy Biebesheimer said she felt “blindsided” by Porter’s desire to raise the topic with residents.
“I have heard no complaints. I have been attending these meetings and there has been no one at the podium talking about signage,” Biebesheimer said.
Supervisor Ellen Cora pointed out she was on the board nearly a decade ago when CDD 1 supervisors hashed out the sign issue. She was in favor of allowing signs at that time and remains in favor of signs today. She recalled what drove the sign debate at that time.
“The Developer wanted to have a monopoly in real estate sales,” Cora said, indicating the intent was to drive out non-Villages real estate signs, including the “For Sale by Owner” signage.
She pointed out that the late Don Hahnfeldt, then president of The Villages Homeowners Association and then-Villages Vice President Gary Moyer came to the supervisors’ meeting to “exert pressure” on CDD 1 to do the Developer’s bidding.
Cora said residents may still be smarting from the Nov. 3 election. She said the election was incredibly “divisive.” She said that could be fueling the anti-sign sentiment.