Homeowners in the neighborhood of the 59-year-old club in Gretna, La. have persuaded the Jefferson Parish Council to create a special taxing entity for raising new revenue to buy the club property and operate it as a public asset. A similar plan was created for Stonebridge GC in Gretna, but some are protesting what is seen as “backroom dealing” that would only benefit club members.
While operating expenses have held fairly steady at the Timberlane Country Club, which has a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones—membership at the private Gretna, La., club has fallen one-third in the past eight years, to 250 dues-paying shareholders, The New Orleans (La.) Times-Picayune reported.
That’s a threat not just to the future of the 59-year-old club, the Times-Picayune reported, but to the Timberlane Estates neighborhood, where residents of about 500 homes valued at an average of around $300,000 enjoy the serenity and proximity of 140 acres of green space and its water features. If the club fails, some predict, residential property values will plunge 20 percent to 30 percent, and who knows what might be built on the golf course?
Instead of ceding control to fate or the free market, however, a group of homeowners is turning to the government for help, The Times-Picayune reported. The group has persuaded the Jefferson Parish (La.) Council to create a special taxing entity, the Timberlane Neighborhood Improvement and Beautification District, with a five-member board of commissioners to consider and propose options for helping to save Timberlane.
If voters in the subdivision and surrounding area approve, The Times-Picayune reported, the District could levy a tax or fee on real estate within its boundaries, and then use the revenue to buy the club’s property and operate it as a public asset.
The idea has divided residents of the gated subdivision, The Times-Picayune reported. Proponents commend a vehicle that empowers residents to “act on issues that involve our property,” while opponents condemn rushed “backroom dealing” that benefits only club members.
“We realized, a large group of us in the neighborhood, that the club is about to fail,” Brady Garrity, who lives in the subdivision and helped to organize the taxing district, told the Parish Council on December 5. “We’re not going to sit around and hope for the best.”
But Gail Heine, an opponent who also lives in the subdivision, countered that “Usually when things are railroaded, the train crashes. Why should the whole neighborhood pay for a few that enjoy the golf course and the country club?”
There is precedent in the parish for such an arrangement, The Times-Picayune reported; a similar taxing district was created for Stonebridge Golf Club in Gretna, and voters approved a 45-mill property tax to buy the site.
The Timberlane property is valued by the Jefferson Parish assessor’s office at $5.3 million, The Times-Picayune reported. Operating expenses run about $1.2 million a year, club President Charles “Chip” Rosen III said in an interview December 12. The club owes the U.S. Small Business Administration about $1.3 million for repair and rebuilding loans it obtained after hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Isaac in 2012.
Membership in the club costs $79 to $290 a month, depending on level of access, and all come with an additional $20 monthly minimum for food. The club does not charge an initiation fee. About 150 homeowners in the Timberlane Estates subdivision are members of the club, Rosen told The Times-Picayune.
In addition to its Robert Trent Jones-designed 18-hole golf course, Timberlane offers an a driving range, pro shop, clubhouse with dining and banquet rooms, swimming pool, tennis courts, fitness center and sand volleyball courts. It’s open to non-members for a fee, and it recently added Footgolf as a new recreational attraction.
In the old model of running a country club, the Timberlane board simply estimated the operating expenses for the coming year, divided the amount by the number of members, and assessed the quotient to each one. Major capital improvements required a special assessment, The Times-Picayune reported.
That no longer works, Rosen said, as membership has declined. “It’s a low-margin business to begin with,” he said.
The club is taking no position on whether the public should buy its property, Rosen told The Times-Picayune, “I think it’s appropriate that the community have the right of self-determination,” he said. And while the club has no plans to close, he admitted that “No solution appears to be on the horizon that would present an epiphany.”
Rosen acknowledged to The Times-Picayune that Timberlane’s shareholders recently authorized the Board of Directors to prepare a bankruptcy filing “in the event that there was no other reasonable option.” Actually declaring bankruptcy would require another board vote.
Skeptics say the threat of insolvency is a scare tactic, The Times-Picayune reported. One told the Parish Council that she has been hearing sob stories from the country club for 30 years, and that it should just declare bankruptcy. Another, Ronda Sweet, said Timberlane Estates taxes and property insurance already are too expensive, and that the taxing district is being rushed into existence with insufficient public input.
“Most of the people don’t even know that this is going on,” Sweet said. “This smacks of backroom dealing at the costs of the residents affected.”
Proponents of the taxing district say they regret the hurried pace, but that it is needed with the country club falling into a deficit, The Times-Picayune reported.
“We’re not asking you to shove a tax down the throats of my neighbors,” Garrity told the council. “We’re asking to give the neighbors an opportunity to vote on it.”
Councilman Ricky Templet, whose district includes Timberlane, agreed the measure merely enables the community to make its own decision. “This is basically an empty shell,” he said. “It’s totally up to the neighbors and the property owners in Timberlane.”
With that, the Parish Council voted 7-0 to create the district. Proponents hope to have something to present to voters on May 4, 2019, The Times-Picayune reported.
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