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The Villages developer settles lawsuit
Associated Press
Published March 10, 2008
THE VILLAGES - The companies that run this sprawling central Florida retirement community have agreed to pay $40-million to cover improvements and repairs, as part of a lawsuit settlement. A circuit judge in Lake County approved the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that claimed the monthly amenity fees paid by The Villages' 70,000 residents had been misused by The Villages of Lake-Sumter Inc., the Village Center Community Development District and developer H. Gary Morse. The settlement approved last week requires the developer to pay about $40-million over the next 13 years to replenish maintenance accounts. It also requires the defendants to pay $50,000 each to five plaintiffs and $6.7-million to the plaintiffs' attorneys. Money from the settlement will replenish accounts used to finance facility improvements and pay pool monitors, after-hours golf ambassadors and Neighborhood Watch staff. The settlement includes limits on the number of tee times that can be reserved by the developer's sales staff for prospective customers. The developer also will provide money to widen 6 miles of golf-cart paths to better accommodate bicyclists and joggers. Attorneys for Morse and the other defendants denied any wrongdoing or misappropriation.
[Last modified March 10, 2008, 00:07:59]
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by Jan
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03/11/08 02:01 PM
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Let this precedent be notice to all planned communities in central FL: these fees are to be used and accounted for and Marion govt. has been asleep on the job not insuring big developers file required annual fin.reports! Or see ya in court!
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by Wendel
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03/11/08 09:09 AM
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My sincere thanks to the Times for printing this article about this mega-development. No local newspapers will challenge the developer.
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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