The Amenity Authority Committee is ready to follow the Project Wide Advisory Committee’s lead and look at a potential conversion in which entrance gates would open automatically in The Villages.
PWAC raised eyebrows earlier this week when its members decided to explore doing away with card waving and having the gates open automatically.
PWAC’s decision came after a joint meeting with the AAC last month in which both bodies rejected a plan for long-range readers and encrypted sensors which would have saved residents from rolling down windows and waving cards. With long-range Sunpass-style readers, the gates would have opened automatically for residents. However, officials rejected the plan because the price tag of more than $1 million was seen as too expensive.
Having the gates open automatically for any approaching vehicle has suddenly become a cheaper, more attractive option for some officials.
“In my opinion, that serves the same function as the long-range reader,” said AAC Chair Donna Kempa at Wednesday’s meeting at Savannah Center.
AAC member Richard Benson, who started the entire conversation earlier this year by proposing a “paradigm shift” in the approach to the gates, made another bold suggestion at Wednesday’s meeting.
“We really don’t need a manned gate anymore,” Benson said.
Deputy District Manager Carrie Duckett cautioned AAC members about considering such a dramatic change which could be interpreted by residents as a “reduction in service” from what they believed they would be getting when they purchased their homes.
“You can enhance the level of service, but you cannot reduce it,” Duckett said.
The AAC will put the topic on an upcoming agenda for discussion.
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