What’s happening in golf course communities across the U.S.?
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
Code enforcement to go after Vellano golf course
By Marianne Napoles | Posted 4 weeks ago (July 1, 2018)
The code enforcement division for the City of Chino Hills will soon notify Western Golf Properties that the chain-link fence placed around the Vellano golf course is illegal.
City manager Rad Bartlam said the city considers the fence to be a code enforcement matter that will be pursued under assistant city manager Ben Montgomery.
Vellano contains 205 custom and semi-custom homes and a golf course designed by Greg Norman off Woodview Road, west of Peyton Drive.
Vellano residents packed city council chambers Tuesday to support a presentation given by homeowners’ association president Michael Konrad about the closure of the golf course and the formation of “Victory for Vellano,” a grass-roots group.
Mr. Konrad said after the golf course was purchased by Western Golf Properties (WGP) 16 months ago, residents were informed that houses would be built.
Mr. Konrad told the council that WGP, whom he called a “predatory developer,” threatened to close the golf course and put a fence around it until homeowners agreed to pressure the city to allow development. He said this tactic worked at WGP-owned golf courses in Corona, Escondido, Rancho Mirage, and others.
WGP closed the golf course in May and installed the fence two weeks ago.
This article explains the concept of a ‘predatory developer’ who acquires failing golf courses, shuts them down, and then allegedly uses various manipulative tactics to convince homeowners to go along with a plan to redevelop the land parcel and build new homes. Homeowners fight back by filing a complaint with City Code Enforcement.
King’s Crossing subdivision considers building new clubhouse, golf course (TX)
Author: Taylor Alanis
Published: 6:16 PM CDT July 3, 2018
Updated: 6:59 PM CDT July 3, 2018
Corpus Christi (KIII News) — A staple in the King’s Crossing neighborhood for several decades is finally seeing its last days even though it’s been closed for nearly 10 years.
The old clubhouse has been a hazard and an eyesore ever since it was closed, but a new proposal is in the works to build a new state-of-the-art clubhouse and to restore the subdivision’s golf course.
The King’s Crossing homeowners association said the old clubhouse has acquired some damage over the years thanks to trespassers, critters and other unwelcome guests — so much so that it was considered unrestorable by architects. Whether or not a new facility will replace it is in residents’ hands.
Residents have the chance to vote on a proposal for a new more than 18,000-square-foot clubhouse and a restored golf course. The golf course would be managed by the same team in charge of the Texas A&M golf course.
The homeowners association would run the new facilities but they would collect a $75 a month fee to maintain them.
“Everybody would have to be a social member, which gets you everything but the golf. That would be swimming, splash pad, tennis courts, workout area, dining hall, meeting rooms,” Homeowners Association President Robert Cagle said.
Cagle said a full golf membership would cost a little extra, but building a new clubhouse would give residents a chance to socialize more and build better relationships with their neighbors.
Read more (Video):
https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/kings-crossing-subdivision-considers-building-new-clubhouse-golf-course/503-570439177
This report reads almost like a sales pitch for homeowners to vote in favor of restoring the clubhouse and golf course. The clubhouse has been closed for a decade, and, in order for the HOA to move ahead with restoration, two-thirds of all members (owners) in the HOA must vote in favor of the proposal on September 15th.
Going out of business, golf courses become prime redevelopment targets (KY)
Kate Talerico, Louisville Courier Journal Published 2:41 p.m. ET July 5, 2018
As golf courses close and fairways dry up all across Louisville, developers eyeing them are still seeing green.
Closed courses offer a prime opportunity for real estate developers: Years of decline in the golf industry have made the land cheap, and often the properties are located in well-off areas with prime access to good schools and commercial districts.
Some golf course owners, including ones like Indian Springs, have already started to sell off parts of their land for development, but have encountered pushback from neighbors unprepared to see the golf courses disappear. The debate over the land’s future has prompted a wave of response by NIMBYs — an urbanist term for “Not in My Back Yard” — who hope that instead of development, the land will remain a green extension of their backyards.
Whether developers and their neighbors end disputes over the closed courses or get entrenched in the sandpits will determine if these swaths of open land across Louisville become redeveloped.
Lots of golf course land is up for grabs in Kentucky. And that leads to a variety of new land uses.
Neighborhood associations vote to buy golf course for $3.15 million (KY)
BY GREG KOCHER
gkocher1@herald-leader.com
June 29, 2018 02:02 PM
Six neighborhood associations have voted to buy Andover Golf and Country Club from Whitaker Bank for $3.15 million.
The vote reflected the will of a majority of Andover area residents to protect the green space from possible development, said Nathan Billings, a lawyer who represented an alliance of neighborhoods.
“It’s historic in the sense that the neighbors have said, ‘We want more green space in Lexington. We don’t want it developed. And we are willing to buy and maintain that property to have that benefit.’”
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There is some discussion about incorporating aspects of a “wellness community” into the Andover property to encourage a stronger connection to nature and physical activity, Billings said. Wellness communities are a rising trend in real estate in the United States and around the world.
“One of the takeaways from this is: Everyone can talk about Fayette County wanting to add density everywhere, and this shows that people maybe don’t agree with that,” Billings said.
“People like having green space in their backyard. People like access to trails. People are sometimes willing to pay some extra money to have more green space.”
Read more here:
https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article214015794.html#storylink=cpy
The backlash against construction of densely packed housing continues, as a supermajority of homeowners vote to purchase a defunct golf course, in order to keep it green space. And they’re willing to pay a special assessment to prevent a developer from ruining their view.
Homeowners Will Pay The Price For A Backyard Golf Course, One Way Or Another
Blake Plumley CommunityVoice
Forbes Real Estate Council
Jul 12, 2018, 08:00am 7,279 views
Most everyone is familiar with the term “dead mall” to refer to a shopping center that has become stagnant and lost its anchors and many of its tenants. Now, suburban America is experiencing a new death right in their own backyards, one that is arguably much more difficult to address — and homeowners will be the ones paying the price, either in cash or a substantial loss of equity in their homes.
If you hadn’t heard of “dead golf course” before, you have now. Homeowners and HOAs across the U.S. are dealing with the relatively recent upswing in golf course failures. While the root cause of the business failures is still being argued (explanations range from the Great Recession to Tiger Woods’ fall from grace to the athletic tastes of millennials), one thing is certain: fewer people golf today. With fewer golfers paying to play the courses become unworkable, and ultimately, the homeowners surrounding courses are faced with the unknown.
Through their HOAs, homeowners often engage in protracted, costly litigation to protect their backyard views and property values. Being a development consultant, I get calls weekly from HOAs looking for answers: Their boards face a choice of acquiring the golf course and increasing HOA dues (sometimes requiring a large special assessment to the members), or they accept that the golf course land will be redeveloped into something with little to no input from them.
Here at IAC, the demise of the golf course community, and HOA battles over whether to save the course, or allow it to be redeveloped, has been covered for several years.
It’s about time that national media outlets acknowledge the long-running real estate trend and HOA controversy.
Golf at Hunting Hills protected as residents buy the course (VA)
By Jeff Sturgeon jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com 981-3251 Jul 14, 2018
Fans of golf who wanted the sport preserved at Hunting Hills Country Club in Roanoke County have bought the course.
And the private club is planning to increase the hours when the public can play the course, located five miles south of downtown Roanoke.
A limited liability company supported by residents purchased the roughly 150-acre course for $1.9 million in early July, according to real estate records filed in Roanoke County Circuit Court.
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“We would love to see more players on our course,” said Duke Edsall, general manager and membership director of the club. He said the club is getting ready to come out with some additional times for public play.
Although there are about 800 houses, townhouses and condominium units at Hunting Hills and club membership has increased, the golf course isn’t quite as busy as officials would like. “The ‘Tiger Woods bump’ is long gone,” Edsall said.
Sometimes a community has enough golf players to organize as a corporation and purchase the golf course from a private owner. That’s what happened at Hunting Hills Country Club. However, the newly formed private club faces the ongoing challenge of dwindling interest in golf.
River Valley Ranch Golf Club headed into the rough
Alex Zorn, Post Independent
July 17, 2018
The River Valley Ranch Golf Club in Carbondale may have to close at the end of the current golf season unless a resolution comes forward in the meantime, according to reports from a recent meeting of the RVR Homeowners Association
HOA President Scott Darling confirmed the issue was brought forward to homeowners by golf course owner Dale Rands, and said the gist is that the golf course may have to shut down if something can’t be worked out with homeowners or some other entity.
Darling added that the course closing isn’t necessarily imminent, and the parties involved continue to look for solutions. But the golf course operation is in financial distress, he said.
Read more:
https://www.postindependent.com/news/head-here-and-here-also-here-3/
Early efforts to save a golf course, if enough homeowners show interest.
As Daytona golf course owners ponder change, residents feel left in the dark
By Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
Posted Jun 29, 2018 at 6:46 PM
Updated Jun 30, 2018 at 12:26 PM
DAYTONA BEACH — For more than 40 years, the Indigo Lakes neighborhood has been a serene place with natural ponds encircled in cattails, majestic trees towering over lush greenery below and a golf course regarded as one of the best in the area.
But in the past few years, the 18-hole golf course and its long-popular clubhouse have struggled. There have been unprecedented shutdowns for weeks at a time. The once top-tier greens and fairways have become soggy embarrassments with both overgrown patches and bare spots.
The course has changed ownership five times in the past 30 years, and over the past decade there have been at least two attempts to cover some of the course’s 250 acres with new homes and businesses.
So when residents of the 450-home neighborhood started seeing survey stakes pop up along the course about a month ago, they went on high alert. Rumors about a sale and plans for new residential and commercial development have been running rampant in the neighborhood west of Williamson Boulevard near International Speedway Boulevard.
It turns out the golf course is not in the process of being sold, but its owners are most definitely making moves to redevelop some of their property. On Wednesday, City Manager Jim Chisholm and Deputy City Manager Jim Morris met with Colin Jon, a Chinese-Canadian investor who is part of a group that bought Indigo Lakes Golf Club in 2013.
Jon didn’t present a detailed proposal, but he did have a general idea he floated to see how it would work with city regulations, said City Commissioner Rob Gilliland, whose west Daytona Beach zone includes Indigo Lakes.
Indigo Lakes has been in decline for decades. So homeowners know that change is inevitable. They would just like to be kept in the loop.
Oro Valley residents working to keep Vistoso Golf Course (AZ)
Posted: Jun 27, 2018 8:01 PM EDT
Updated: Jun 27, 2018 9:29 PM EDT
Written By Denelle Confair
ORO VALLEY – The golf club at Vistoso has been closed for almost a month now and residents in the area are taking their frustrations to an HOA meeting Wednesday night. Some residents we talked to say they should have been notified a year ago when the HOA first learned that the golf course could be shut down.
“It used to be rated number one in Arizona. So it’s really sad,” Debbie Drysdale Vistoso resident said.
Several homeowners that live near or on the Vistoso golf course are loosing what was once a prime view of the greens now turning brown. The owners of the course notified the HOA board of the closure over a year ago but residents say they only found out a week before the water was getting shut off.
Read more (video):
https://kvoa.com/news/2018/06/27/oro-valley-residents-working-to-keep-vistoso-golf-course/
Homeowners say that their HOA board knew about plans to close the golf course and shut off water a year ago, but never communicated that news to members of the association.
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