Some Villages officials are ready to get tough on residents’ improvements in rights of way, but have realized the enforcement could be tricky.
Community Development District 4 supervisors met in a special session Friday afternoon to discuss the problem of landscaping, trees and other items that residents have put in the CDD 4 right of way.
Florida Statute defines a right of way as, “Land in which the state, the department, a county, or a municipality owns the fee or has an easement devoted to or required for use as a transportation facility.” A homeowner does not own this piece of land, therefore it does not fall under the purview of Community Standards.
In the roughly two decades that CDD 4 has been in existence in the Marion County portion of The Villages, homeowners have been making improvements in the rights of way. Many may have assumed it was their property and well within their power to make those improvements.
However, as some residents in the Village of Calumet Grove learned last year during massive repairs after the devastating 2018 sinkholes, making improvements in the right of way can come at a cost. Several homeowners were bitterly upset that the driveway pavers they had put down with pride had to be dug out and replaced at the homeowners’ expense.
Supervisors were in agreement that improvements cannot be allowed in the right of way at the 5,700 homes in CDD 4. They agreed homeowners’ improvements in the right of way could be a potential liability to CDD 4.
“You cannot build on someone else’s property. I strongly feel that no improvement should be allowed by the owner in the right of way,” said Supervisor Cary Sternberg, a previous member of the Architectural Review Committee.
Supervisor Cliff Wiener, another former ARC member, was in agreement.
“Anything that’s in the right of way needs to go,” Wiener said. “We need to stop it from happening, now.”
While supervisors agreed in theory about taking a hardline against items in the right of way, they soon realized putting it into practice wouldn’t be so easy.
Supervisors discussed a range of options, from giving homeowners a 12-month grace period to take care of removal of the unsanctioned items to dispatching Community Watch trucks to address the offenses.
District Manager Richard Baier volunteered to draft language on potential enforcement and bring it before the CDD 4 board at its September meeting.
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August 08, 2020 at 06:09AM
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Villages officials ready to get tough on residents' improvements in right of way - Villages-News
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