County Council

 Our new community had a golf course and club house/restaurant that was owned by a different entity. I'm not certain how that came about, but the land was designated as such in the original plats, so we found out.  From what I've heard the golf course has struggled since just before Covid. It has been sold a few times and purchased a few times, but it apparently has been too expensive for new owners to bring it back to rights. The current owner decided he couldn't bring it back, so it has remained unused with no maintenance, thus the greens have gone to weeds and the buildings on the property are in disrepair. The owner is a developer. Some folks question whether he ever intended to open the property as a golf course. He submitted plans to the County last year to convert the property into a development with 85 homes. Those who had bought homes so they could live on a golf course understandably were up in arms. Many of those not living on the golf course sided with them and it went before the County Commission a year ago. The application was denied. 

That is not the end of the story. The developer redrew his plans, prepared a glitzy presentation and has reduced the number of homes to 80. We attended the Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday night to find out more. I personally would have liked to see the course remain as I've heard the club house was a nice addition to our community for meals, get-togethers and such. I like the idea of homes viewing fairways and having that green space (although our community has plenty of green space since all lots are 1 to 20 acres in size, with plenty of drainage easements and retention ponds for storm water runoff). 

The Courtroom was full, as was the overflow jury selection room and an additional courtroom. Proceedings were viewed on large screen TVs. The two factions, those for and against the development showed up en masse. A handful of folks, wearing green shirts, were for the proposed change, the majority, probably over 80 folks, wore black. It was almost comical - I kept envisioning a board game, like Risk, where colored pawns were strategically placed to do battle. 

Proceedings began at 5:15 PM. The developers presentation was interesting, but the lawyer for the opposition pointed out several nit-picking holes in it. I was actually in awe of his attention to tiny details. We left the meeting at 7 PM, when the presentations and rebuttal and all that legal  procedural stuff was complete. We were hungry and knew our dogs were waiting for their dinners. The line for public comment, 3 minutes allowed per speaker, was long - from our vantage point we couldn't see the end of it. 

We grabbed dinner at my favorite junk food spot came home and watched the speakers on YouTube. 

We went to bed, listening to speakers. Finally around 10 PM the Board voted. The developer prevailed. The land will become housing with open space where many of the fairways are. Some golf view homes will have a 20' easement between their homes and those being built. Time will tell if the developer lives up to his promises.