General Manager Mike Cochran and his staff at the Green Valley, Ariz. property have had to become “a little more assertive” in dealing with homeowners and developers trimming or removing trees and shrubs that are on golf course property and protect golfers from a dangerous washbed. “A lot of our neighbors sort of forget where the lot line is,” Cochran says. “They didn’t really buy the view, but they think they bought the view.”
Problems have arisen near Canoa Ranch Golf Club in Green Valley, Ariz. with homeowners trimming or removing trees and shrubs that are on golf course property, the Green Valley News reported.
“A lot of our neighbors sort of forget where the lot line is when they need something done,” Canoa Ranch General Manager Mike Cochran told the News. “The trees grow, as nature prescribes, and they sort of forget that’s not their property.”
The conflict stems from homeowners wanting to gaze out their windows onto the course, and the need for Cochran and his crew to protect the needs of the golfers and of the property itself, the News reported.
“They didn’t really buy the view, but they think they bought the view,” Cochran said.
Much of the vegetation between the course and the nearby houses acts as a buffer not only against stray balls hitting homes, but also for a large wash that runs along much of the property, Cochran explained. And a roughly 10-foot drop into a rocky and overgrown washbed awaits anyone who ventures too close to the edge.
“We don’t want people down there,” Cochran said. “Golfers are creatures of habit; if they lose a golf ball and they see it, they’re gonna go get it. And then we have an injury.
“So, very purposefully, we leave this kind of vegetation here so that it inhibits the golfers from thinking they want to get down in the gully,” he added.
The most recent issue that Canoa Ranch has had to deal with has been with a nearby developer, Meritage Homes, the News reported.
On September 17th, Cochran told the News, some of the club’s maintenance staff noticed third-party contractors cutting trees and removing branches and other vegetation from the golf course property without approval. The course is currently closed for overseeding.
The maintenance crew asked the landscapers to stop, which they did, Cochran said, and he soon got a phone call from a Meritage representative.
Meritage has been cooperative, Cochran added, and the two parties were planning to sit down in a week or so to figure out how to move forward, the News reported.
Cochran plans to ask the developer to remove all the brush that has already been cut, which was still piled on the edge of the course property the next day; remove the stumps of the trees that had been chopped down; and add root killer to prevent the trees from regrowing.
For the cleared area which now exposes the wash, the News reported, Canoa Ranch will probably have no choice but to rope it off with yellow caution tape to keep people out—“which is not going to look real pretty from over there,” Cochran said, referring to the Meritage home lot where a home is about to be built.
In previous years, neighbors and homeowners associations (HOAs) have hired landscaping companies to go right onto the course and start removing branches and trees, Cochran said, with work trucks and trailers driving along golf cart paths, sometimes in the middle of play.
Most often when this happens, he added, he sends the property owner or HOA a letter detailing the club’s tree trimming and removal policy, and tries to come to an arrangement that works for both sides. Usually they are very accommodating once the issue is brought up, he said.
Cochran said he understands neighbors wanting to have a view of the course, especially when they are paying a premium for golf course lots. But he asks that they work with him directly rather than taking matters into their own hands.
“They just decimate everything in order to get the view,” he said.
One neighbor near the Torres Blancas Golf Club in Green Valley, which Cochran also oversees, did just that, clear-cutting the area between his home and the golf course last year and then burning the brush and debris on golf course property.
“The fire department responded with the sheriff; we sent the sheriff over to the guy’s house,” Cochran told the News. And Cochran told the officers that if the neighbor wasn’t understanding of what living near the property entails and wasn’t willing to cooperate, the golf course would have to press charges.
“We don’t want to go down that route, but sometimes we have to,” he said. “We’re starting to be a little more assertive with them.”
Cochran had a simple request for the hundreds of homeowners who live near the golf properties and are looking to improve the view from their porch or window.
“Make contact with us before taking any action on tree and shrubbery trimming, and we’ll work with folks. We’ll work with all the neighbors,” he said.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.