The property has racked up a $170,000 water bill since 2013, and will clear the debt by giving the city its fourth hole, the product of months of negotiations. The city plans to create a neighborhood park out of the 11-acre parcel.

Apopka (Fla.) Golf & Tennis at Errol Estate, which has racked up a $170,000 water bill, has found a way of clearing its debt through an unconventional land swap, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.

Under the plan, the club would give the city its fourth hole, the product of months of negotiation between Apopka staff and golf course owners, who were slapped with the hefty utility tab when they took possession of the property last year, the Sentinel reported.

The city hopes to get a new neighborhood park out of the deal. Someday the 11-acre site, located within a section of the course that was shut down years ago, could become a place for residents to laze in a gazebo or work up a sweat at an exercise station, the Sentinel reported.

The agreement will also erase some of the debt encumbering Apopka Golf and Tennis at Errol Estate, which is struggling to survive in the face of withering memberships at clubhouses around the region. The Apopka Golf and Tennis club is “like the icon of Errol Estate,” resident Paul Borders said. But in recent years, the greens have been languishing, the Sentinel reported.

The $169,728.27 water bill piled up under the course’s former owner, a Belgian man with a vision to run a thriving golf school but without the cash flow to execute the plan. Larry Klein, an Errol Estate resident who now owns the club, said he doesn’t understand why the city allowed the former course owner to run up such a huge water bill without turning off the tap, the Sentinel reported.

Apopka City Administrator Glenn Irby said normally the city would give a commercial water customer a grace period of a few weeks. But the former course owners didn’t pay from January 2013 until October 2014, when Klein took over, he said. Irby said he learned about the unpaid bill earlier this year when he started his job at the city. At that point, Apopka officials placed a lien against the property. The city will remove the lien as part of the 11-acre property swap, the Sentinel reported.

Klein, 91, has argued that the water bill isn’t his responsibility, since it accrued under prior ownership. He and city staff went back and forth for months until they compromised on the land trade, the Sentinel reported.

Commissioner Bill Arrowsmith said despite its struggles, the Apopka course still has a fighting chance to survive. The course benefits from its unique layout and supporters like Klein and other Errol Estate residents, said Arrowsmith, who lives in the community and is a club member.

About three years ago, a band of neighbors who called themselves “The Eradicators” formed to take course maintenance into their own hands. They’ve spent about 2,000 hours wrestling down overgrown vines, lopping branches from unkempt palm trees and taking on other clean-up tasks, Tom Russell, another Errol Estate resident, said.

Now, their neighbor, Klein, has been investing his money in restoring the course. Klein has been involved in the course’s management for years and took possession of it again about a year ago when the property fell into financial distress, the Sentinel reported.

Borders and Russell are volunteering their time to help Klein get the course back on track, with the ultimate goal of selling it to a stable owner. Golf courses are tough to market these days, but several vacant sections of property could entice a developer, Russell said.

Klein estimated that there’s space to build about 300 homes without encroaching on the 18 holes that are in use at the course, the Sentinel reported.