More and more Villagers are concluding they were betrayed when they bought their homes and believed the promise that the Developer was going to stop building.
It’s a story we hear every day as The Villages’ population soars toward 200,000. Bigger than Clearwater. Bigger than Gainesville. Nearly as big as Tallahassee. Soon to rival Fort Lauderdale.
“We bought here in 2015 and it was wonderful! However we’ve found that everyone without fail that we’ve talked to, all have the same comment, ‘Oh, there won’t be anymore building past…..’ whichever village they live in,” said Vicki McMillan of the Village of Charlotte
She said the deception is perfectly clear to her now.
“You have taken out the uniqueness of this beautiful concept. How much do you have to overtake for the sake of money? Stop the expansion and just keep the dream as your grandfather saw it. Enough is enough,” she said.
Sandie Shepherd-Mueller bought in The Villages in 2013. By 2021, she’d had enough.
“It was a wonderful place to live and enjoy retirement. I, too, was told that the buildout was soon. As time went into years, it became more and more crowded,” she said.
Shepherd-Mueller moved back to North Carolina and has no regrets. She said the traffic and entitlement had become too much to bear.
“In the restaurant there seems to be a contest to see who can be the loudest, like, ‘Look at me!” she said.
Donald Crewes calls himself a “geezer” and bought his home in The Villages in 2001.
“I agree that the dream is fading,” he said.
He said Florida’s Friendliest Hometown stopped focusing on making retirees’ dreams come true and instead focused on bankrolling the Developer’s pockets.
“Something has gone amiss,” he said.
Share your thoughts about the growth of The Villages at [email protected].