Residents of a villa community in The Villages have petitioned for the chance to dress up their driveways.
Eileen Deckler of the Phillips Villas took the matter Friday before the Community Development District 4 Board of Supervisors.
“We are all looking at improving our homes,” she said.
Deckler provided a petition for the Phillips Villas, courtyard villas, to permit driveway designs. The petition indicated she collected 198 signatures from 165 households. That represents 64 percent of the residents, falling short of the 75 percent typically required to enact such a change.
Driveway designs in villa communities would be new territory for CDD 4, which is located in the Marion County section of The Villages. The board would have to approve a change to the Architectural Review Manual to provide a petition process for driveway design petitions for courtyard villas.
Still, District professional staff was hesitant about seeing the process move forward.
“The design configuration of courtyard villas is such that there is a consistent design theme throughout the individual villa units. Permitting designs on driveways would detract from the uniform and consistent design intent of the courtyard villa driveways,” staff wrote in a memo to CDD 4 supervisors.
Still, the board did not reject Deckler’s proposal.
“We like to see residents get what they ask for as long as everyone is agreeable. Your home is your castle,” said Supervisor Don Deakin.
The board voted to table the matter until next month.
“We need to hold off until we get a little more information,” said CDD 4 Board Chairman Jim Murphy.
Last year, Deckler appeared before the board asking that the drought-tolerant plants at the entrance to the Phillips Villas be replaced with flowers that would be changed out four times per year. The Phillips Villas and their sister Soulliere Villas were added to CDD 4 about four years ago after the Developer announced in 2015 the intention to construct the 300 courtyard villas.
