Butters Development and Construction wants to make an industrial area out of the 74-acre, Deerfield Beach, Fla., property. If a zoning change is approved, the company would keep 47 acres as green space designated as a municipal park, and build offices, industrial buildings and stores on the remaining acreage.
Residents are debating whether Deerfield Country Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla., should be transformed into an industrial park, the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun Sentinel reported.
Residents who live near the 74-acre green space, which Butters Development and Construction wants to make an industrial area, mostly support the change. Other residents, though, don’t want one of the city’s larger green spaces to be paved over, the Sentinel reported.
Once it becomes an industrial park, which would require a zoning change, it will be hard to get that green back, said attorney Thomas Koenig.
“The entire Deerfield Country Club golf course cannot be turned into an industrial park,” said resident Bett Willett, who runs a blog about Deerfield’s city government. “This is an evil genie that cannot be stuffed back in the bottle.”
Butters Development hopes to get Deerfield and Broward County to change the land use designation from recreational open space to an area where offices, industrial buildings and stores are allowed, the Sentinel reported.
The company would keep 47 acres as green space and a lake, building on just the other 27 acres, said Dennis Mele, attorney for Butters.
Part of the 47 acres would be designated as a municipal park, but would be owned and maintained by the managers of the new industrial park, Mele said. This is in part a response to residents who are concerned about the loss of open space, the Sentinel reported
“There are currently 732 trees on the golf course,” Mele said. “We’ll have over 1,600 when we’re done.”
The city commission voted 4-1 to support the land-use change opening the way for Butters to build, and will take a second and final vote later this summer, the Sentinel reported.
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