Voters have approved a tax increase to help the Prospect Recreation and Park District purchase and improve Applewood Golf Course in Golden, Colo., to prevent it from being redeveloped. In Port Richey, Fla., the county purchased the abandoned Timber Oaks Golf Course with the aim to build a network of storm-water ponds to ease flooding troubles.
Voters have approved the opportunity for a local recreation district to purchase Applewood Golf Course in Golden, Colo., in an attempt to save it from development, the Denver Post reported.
Prospect Recreation and Park District asked voters to approve a tax increase and to incur a debt to help it purchase and improve the golf course. According to the unofficial results posted by Jefferson County, 68 percent of voters approved a 1-mill tax increase to serve the overall needs of the district and 70 percent of voters approved the debt the district will need to incur to purchase the golf course, the Post reported.
The golf course is in pending sale to a developer that wants to put a 400-home active adult community on its 140 acres, the Post reported.
The community surrounding the course is largely opposed to its development. At a public meeting in April for rezoning the land, Kent Carlson of Carlson and Associates, said his firm would offer the district the opportunity to buy the property in response to the public outcry, the Post reported.
The specifics of the the sale, including the price, have not been negotiated, but the ballot measure asked that district’s debt be increased by $9 million with a maximum repayment cost of up to $19.9 million, the Post reported.
Prospect Recreation and Park District is a special district that serves the mostly unincorporated areas east of Golden and west of Interstate 70 in Jefferson County. It maintains seven parks, a conservation easement, trail and two houses for events. The district’s 2008 master plan said it served an estimated population of 1 0,638, the Post reported.
The sale of Applewood Golf Course was announced in February. It has operated for 55 years on a lease agreement with the property owner, now Molson Coors. It is popular for its affordable fees and chemical-free ground care, the Post reported.
Pasco County, Fla., now owns the abandoned Timber Oaks Golf Course in Port Richey, Fla., which, if everything goes according to plan, will become lakes or at least ponds in the next few years, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Tampa Bay Times reported.
Last week, the county closed on the purchase of the golf course with the aim to build a network of storm-water ponds to ease the flooding troubles that have plagued the neighborhood since its development nearly 40 years ago, the Times reported.
“It’s a big sigh of relief,” said Vicki Chellberg, 62, a former vice president of the Timber Oaks Service Association and a member of the three-person mediation team that represented the neighborhood amid the now-concluded legal entanglements. “All this work we put in for such a long time has come to fruition.”
Chellberg and dozens of her neighbors have been frequent visitors at government meetings, dressed in red apparel and urging county commissioners and the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board to proceed with the flood relief plans. Their community sits at the lowest part of a closed basin, where water that comes in doesn’t flow out easily. The tropical storms of 2004 overwhelmed the area, and pumps had to be used to keep water from flooding houses, the Times reported.
Built and marketed as a 55-and-older golf course community, the Timber Oaks course was shut down in 2006, but a developer’s idea to turn the vacant 78 acres into 230 home sites died after the Pasco County Commission rejected the plan from golf course owner Pacer LC. The commission vote came amid concerns over extra traffic atop deteriorating roads, housing marketed to young families in a community earmarked for seniors, and flooding. Pacer sued, and a 2014 settlement called for the county to acquire the golf course for $2.4 million and to build the retention ponds, the cost of which would be billed to homeowners in a new taxing district, the Times reported.
That plan hit a hiccup, however, when homeowners in Spanish Gate Village, a 72-home enclave within Timber Oaks, sued the county earlier this year, contending that the new tax district, known as a municipal service benefit unit, offered them no benefits. They objected to the proposed $112 annual assessment, the Times reported.
Other residents said whatever support existed for the legal fight crumbled when the directors of the Spanish Gate Village Association asked each homeowner for $300 to finance the lawsuit. A Circuit Court judge dismissed the suit in September, ruling the court lacked jurisdiction because the commission acted legislatively, rather than in a quasi-judicial manner, when it established the tax district, the Times reported.
The end of that complaint helped clear the way for finalizing the Pacer lawsuit settlement and for the county to obtain financial assistance from the water management district. The district will provide $4.1 million toward the $9 million cost of acquiring the land and constructing the ponds. The county is paying for the $1 million design and permitting of the project, and the homeowners will finance the rest via an annual assessment for 20 years, the Times reported.
“We can actually give them peace of mind,” said Commissioner Jack Mariano. “The golf course was a nuisance. They can actually see that progress is happening.”
The county closed on the transaction on October 27. The next day, landscaping crews appeared to begin mowing the neglected, overgrown golf course, the Times reported.
Residents, said Chellberg, came out to watch and offered the thumbs-up sign and applause. “If I never got a storm-water pond out of this,” said Chellberg, “to me it’s worth $112 just to get the grass cut.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.