The rezoning will change nearly 920 acres of residential parcels to a planned development. The site was once home to The Pit Golf Links course, which closed in 2010 and was purchased by the Dedman Family, owners of Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort, in 2011. The project design includes a golf course, residential housing, guest accommodations, workforce housing, a USGA center for research and development and a second 18-hole course.

Aberdeen, North Carolina’s Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning request for Pinehurst Resort and Golf Club’s 10th golf course, The Pilot reported.

The rezoning will change nearly 920 acres of residential parcels to a planned development. The site was once home to The Pit Golf Links course, which closed in 2010 and was purchased by the Dedman Family, owners of Pinehurst Resort, in 2011, The Pilot reported.

Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst Resort, spoke at the meeting on Feb. 27 to share the resort’s excitement about the development.

“Twice, golf was conceived and operated on this land that we’re talking about tonight, yet uncontrollable factors made those visions unsustainable,” Pashley said. “Twice. But we all know what they say about the third time, right? If everything happens for a reason, then this might be fate. Golf right now is enjoying a resurgence, and we’ve seen firsthand the evolution in golfers’ preferences. In Aberdeen, on this site, we have a wonderful opportunity to start from scratch and incorporate the type of variety that attracts today’s traveling golfers.”

The project design includes the resort’s 10th course, residential housing, guest accommodations, workforce housing, a USGA center for research and development and a second 18-hole golf course, The Pilot reported.

Bob Koontz, a professional land planner with Koontz Jones Design of Southern Pines, told The Pilot the development will be built in phases, taking upward of a decade to finish.

The main goal, and the project’s first phase, is to create the course and related facilities, like restrooms and a maintenance building, The Pilot reported. Phase two will add a pro shop and a short course. Construction is currently underway for the course.

The resort hopes to complete the course by spring 2024, just ahead of Pinehurst’s No. 2 course hosting the U.S. Open for the fourth time, The Pilot reported.

Phases three and four will likely include workforce housing, a clubhouse and their 11th golf course, The Pilot reported. Subsequent phases will add more lodging, storage and residential housing.

Koontz said the area could have accommodated over 2,500 homes before the rezoning, but the plan has capped the max number of units at 125, The Pilot reported.

Pashley said the development is meant to be “low density and low impact.”

Koontz told the planning board in January that the idea is to be “as light on the land as possible.”

Existing wetlands will irrigate the golf courses, similar to how The Pit used them, and the area is enrolled in the red-cockaded woodpecker safe harbor program, designed to protect and improve habitat for the endangered species, The Pilot reported.