George's Information and Comments

Growth Impact Action Committee

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Final Report: December 7 Staff Presentation to Golf Course Committee

            -- George Edwards

1/5/07 Update: (Changes "Preliminary" to "Final Report") Click here or scroll down to the  paragraphs with blue text.

Proposed Golf Course Overlays

Cliff Rudd, a committee member who was unable to attend, had submitted a golf course overlay that I gather proposed that golf courses be rezoned PDD county-wide thereby assuring full public scrutiny of any golf course redevelopment plan. I will try to get a copy of the proposed overlay before a final report.

Committee chairman, Ed McMenamin, said that a state court ruled that the public does not have a vested interest in a golf course. Sr. Planner John Danford cited Rudd noting the expectations of those buying in a golf course community. Danford said that Rudd did not inform him that he was asking for a vote that day.

Golf Course Committee Rezoning Actions

Staff recommended accepting the golf course rezoning agreement achieved between Wicked Stick and Southwood. The committee unanimously agreed with the recommendation after Lawrence Langdale, representing the Wicked Stick owners, spoke in its favor and the Southwood HOA president, Tom Palmer, and board member Arline Muratori, concurred.

Click the main menu item “Oral Agreement: Wicked Stick Golf Course & Southwood” or click here to review the agreement.

Diamond Back and Heron Point were the other two golf courses on the agenda for discussion and vote on staff’s previous recommendation.

Staff had recommended that Diamond Back be rezoned R4.  Danford said that neither the golf course owners nor the adjacent community members raised any objections and was pressed to defend the recommendations. Ultimately, he was asked if surrounding landowners had been asked. The matter was to be brought back for further discussion and possible vote, presumably after notification of surrounding landowners.

Staff had recommended that Herron Point be rezoned from GR to R7.

The committee voted not to change from the GR zoning. There was nobody from the community there. But the golf course owner and his brother were. The owner wanted his options left open and was allowed to state his case at the platform and then repeatedly from the audience which by then consisted only of the brothers and me).

Pam Hobeika, a committee member, noted the homeowners’ worry as to what would be developed if the golf course were sold. As the meeting had become so informal, I made one point: that if there were no rezoning, a new golf course buyer would be able to plea that he was only building in accordance with the prevailing [undesirable] zoning.  Elizabeth Seratini, another committee member, said the same could be pled by the current owner. The committee as a whole apparently does not accept the idea that prompted the golf course rezoning study in the first place: that golf courses should be rezoned so that golf course redevelopment inconsistent with the build up of adjacent communities would not be allowed by a developer simply filing a building permit.

There seemed to be ample opportunity for reasonable compromise (again, a big issue was GR zoning with its 120 ft. allowed height next to existing residential 35 ft. height construction); the developer was most concerned with the area immediately surrounding the club house and seemed amenable to a lesser height restriction.

But despite Sr. Planner John Danford's suggestion for at least a reduced height (the staff recommended R7 zoning would have limited building heights to 35 feet, but there are GR designations that allow only 65 feet or 45 feet heights as opposed to the general GR 120 ft. height that current zoning allows). I believe it was the lady attorney, Elizabeth Seratini, from Deerfield (a strong developer proponent) who moved to leave the zoning as it was, GR. Pam Hobeika and Ed McMenamin, the two planning commission members on the subcommittee and the only other subcommittee members there, voted in agreement.

McMenamin asked Danford whether this decision would require additional review by the Planning Commission as no zoning change was being made. Danford said that the county can initiate a rezoning, but he could not speak for what would happen.

Staff recommended no rezoning of Eagles Nest. The committee did not need to nor did it vote.

Staff made no recommendation on rezoning River Oaks. It is already zoned R4. The committee did not need to nor did it vote.

Staff was not yet comfortable with recommending an appropriate rezoning for Arrowhead. Danford said that a previously unknown “grand father” agreement had just surfaced and at this point staff did not have sufficient information.  

He concluded his PowerPoint presentation with the details of the Arrowhead analysis as with the other newly considered and previously considered golf courses. Read the following paragraph before linking to the presentation:

You can move from one slide to another by clicking the left hand menu. If you have a dial-up connection, the graphics may load too slowly to be at all acceptable. With either a hi-speed or dial-up connection, you can just move to the next slide rather than wait for the graphic. If a slide remains unchanged when you have clicked the next one on the menu, clicking the menu for the slide after that and then re-clicking the one that did not display previously works.Sporadic error messages that had been experienced when trying to view a few slides seem to have been taken care of.

The graphics present additional or clarifying information via maps and charts. Click here to see the PowerPoint presentation.

Click here to return to the Alerts and Meeting Reports page or click here to return to the Golf Course Rezoning Proposals page. .