Finances & Business
You’ll Pay Dearly When You Upset the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs
Management, be careful with your goose. It could cost you millions.
Synopsis
- Usually, management tries to maximize profits, the golden eggs. However, it will eventually become counterproductive to squeeze out every last cent. That can irritate your goose.
Example of clueless management
The Villages, a retirement community of 125,000 in Florida, has built a stupendous reputation based on the dream of its founder, Harold Schwartz. It’s grown with live entertainment on town squares, its own hospital, charter schools, 56 golf courses, and a peaceful community of single-family homes priced from 100,000 to one million dollars or more.
The Villages developer is now endangering those town squares
Forgetting the dream, they have requested permission from Lady Lake, Florida to replace second-floor offices on the Spanish Springs Town Square, zoned commercial, with rental apartments.
It’s not a bad idea, but their approach couldn’t be worse
In addition, they want to combine map sections H, H-1 and H-2 containing mostly single-family homes, then change the land use to allow apartments, thus quadrupling the population density per acre.
This would allow the developer to replace any recreation center, pool, and golf course with apartments.
They may make money in the short term, but it is a long-term fiasco for The Villages, Lake County and Florida.
The Zoning Board disapproved the request Next step: The Lady Lake Commissioners
The goose’s first irritation
A week ago, I talked to an advertising exec friend in Indianapolis. After the small talk, the first thing he asked was:
“Has Katie Belle’s opened back up yet?”
I had to tell him that The Villages closed it for good and planned to convert it to apartments. He said it was a terrible decision. He reads about The Villages frequently in the national news and Katie Belle’s is quite a draw.
Katie Belle’s is a night club originally modeled like one out of a 1930s movie and was quite popular. It was used to attract residents to The Villages. It’s a major icon and could even be a loss leader! Better than advertising.
Idiot management destroyed its business and that of another highly-popular venue.
Second, larger irritation
Management plans to pack people into as many apartments as possible, like laboratory rats in cages, overloading parking and other facilities. The squares are designed to provide entertainment, restaurants and shopping for non-Villagers and about 30,000 nearby Village residents.
The Villages developer hasn’t even submitted an impact study with their request to change the zoning.
They need to do an impact study that explains the apartment resident’s parking and amenities, their impact is on utilities and services, and their impact on the Square itself, like restaurants and other businesses. Then, explain how any of that will change access to the Square by other residents.
The developer has asked the board to approve their request without any of this, like asking for a blank check.
The squares are what make The Villages unique.
I don’t want to see them destroyed.
The Lady Lake Planning and Zoning Board declined the request. The developer has asked the Commissioners to reverse that decision.
I planned to testify before the Commissioners on Monday, Oct 5, asking that they not reverse the zoning board’s decision, or if they insist on doing so, to give them an option to approve a limited number of apartments and reopen Katy Belle’s.
They postponed the meeting for one month and placed a one-person limit on testimony!
I had planned to use this goose analogy
The Goose
The Villages management inherited a goose, laying golden eggs.
They concluded that they would get larger eggs if the goose eats more. So, they crammed a feeding tube down its throat and tripled its food intake. The goose was so upset that the egg size went from goose to chicken and finally very small pigeon.
So, Management removed the tube. The goose went back to normal, but the eggs didn’t.
Management, be careful with your goose
The Villages developer is trying to do the same thing to the Lake Sumter Landing Town Square in Sumter county.
More about Katie Belle’s
The Commissioners meeting
Lady Lake Commissioner Paul Hannan calls for suppressing objections that “won’t make a difference”
