Florida Golf Courses In Play?
Sure, Southwest Florida has water activities, - boating, parasailing, jet-skiing - as well as an array of cultural attractions, museums and nature centers.
But when most visitors come to Collier County, they have one main activity in mind: A Florida Golf Course.
Collier County is home to about 70 golf courses. Now, with membership numbers at local golf clubs declining, and the need for affordable housing increasing, how long will Florida golf courses be able to resist development?
“Golf courses are running out of patrons, and as you start to see more and more of that, there’s going to be more and more of a push to either add members or sell them off and do something else,” Collier County Manager Jim Mudd said.
“It’s not going to sit there and be idle space.”
Collier County commissioners passed up two opportunities in the past year to purchase a golf course for public use.
Last August, commissioners had the chance to purchase the Ironwood Golf Course in East Naples. The course owners, Illinois-based Van Elway Enterprises Inc., owed millions of dollars to creditors. The course was foreclosed upon and put up for auction.
County staff members didn’t want to keep up the golf course and instead proposed turning it into a park or an affordable housing area.
East Naples residents objected to the ideas and Ronald Berger bought the course at auction for about $1.4 million, Mudd said.
A resident of East Naples who won $10 million in the Florida Lotto in 2002, Berger decided to keep the course and its restaurant open.
County Commissioner Donna Fiala had hoped to purchase and maintain Ironwood. She said the maintenance estimates for the Florida golf course, provided by staff, were too high.
“She didn’t like the cost figures that we had, but I believe the staff’s analysis of financial feasibility was pretty much dead on,” Mudd said. “It’s a hard business around here. There’s so many darn golf courses.”
At the commissioners’ June 7 meeting, Fiala’s request that the county look into purchasing the Riviera Golf Course in East Naples was met with silence.
“The golf course is in good shape and doesn’t need any improvements, so it’s not like we’d have to rescue the course,” she said. “I thought this would be the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Developers with MDG Capital, well-known throughout the county for their work force housing projects, hoped to purchase the golf course in January to develop affordable housing condominiums. The golf course winds between 692 manufactured and single-family homes that are scattered throughout the 55-and-over Riviera Golf Estates community.
Residents protested the development, saying their contracts guaranteed that the golf course view they enjoyed would remain just that in perpetuity. Developers with MDG are in the process of reviewing contracts to determine whether they have the right to build over the golf course.
“I am for affordable housing, because I have children of my own who need that,” said Kay Randazzo, president of the Riviera Homeowners Association. “I just wasn’t supportive of them building condos in the middle of our community.”
Changing a community golf course to an affordable housing development can be fairly simple, said Cormac Giblin, housing and grants manager for the county.
The first step for would-be developers would be to seek permission to rezone the land from Florida golf course to residential, Giblin said. During that process, county planners and commissioners attempt to decide whether the new zoning will be compatible with the overall plan for the area, known as a comprehensive plan.
The good news for developers, Giblin said, is affordable housing developments in place of golf courses are often changes consistent with the comprehensive plan.
“There are no prohibitions regarding golf courses,” Giblin said. “A golf course is not some kind of protected use, like preservation lands or wetlands.
“There’s nothing like that there to stop development.”
The tough part comes later, when developers need to have a super majority - approval from four out of five commissioners - to rezone the land. If the new development will generate too much traffic, harm protected areas or create conflicts with the comprehensive plan, it may not get approved.
But if everything checks out, there is little that can be done to stop development from overtaking a golf course, he said.
“If something meets the plan, and it meets the code, you’re supposed to be able to do it,” Giblin said. “The county lives by the code, and it dies by the code.”
One sure-fire way to halt development of a Florida golf course would be for county commissioners to buy it themselves.
Mudd said the main reason commissioners balked at opportunities to own a golf course are the high expenses involved. Maintaining a golf course, and keeping greens fees low, is hard work, he said. Especially when the competition for top courses is as steep as it is in Collier County.
“In order to have a public golf course, there’s got to be people out there who can’t have golf anywhere else,” Mudd said. “As land (for affordable housing) gets scarce, there’s going to be all kinds of pressure to develop the remaining parcels differently.”
While Mudd acknowledged that Florida golf courses located within communities aren’t necessarily safe from affordable housing development, he said Collier residents will never have to worry about losing all of their links.
“Golf courses are everywhere you look,” Mudd said. “There’s won’t be a shortage of Florida golf courses here at all.”
But when most visitors come to Collier County, they have one main activity in mind: A Florida Golf Course.
Collier County is home to about 70 golf courses. Now, with membership numbers at local golf clubs declining, and the need for affordable housing increasing, how long will Florida golf courses be able to resist development?
“Golf courses are running out of patrons, and as you start to see more and more of that, there’s going to be more and more of a push to either add members or sell them off and do something else,” Collier County Manager Jim Mudd said.
“It’s not going to sit there and be idle space.”
Collier County commissioners passed up two opportunities in the past year to purchase a golf course for public use.
Last August, commissioners had the chance to purchase the Ironwood Golf Course in East Naples. The course owners, Illinois-based Van Elway Enterprises Inc., owed millions of dollars to creditors. The course was foreclosed upon and put up for auction.
County staff members didn’t want to keep up the golf course and instead proposed turning it into a park or an affordable housing area.
East Naples residents objected to the ideas and Ronald Berger bought the course at auction for about $1.4 million, Mudd said.
A resident of East Naples who won $10 million in the Florida Lotto in 2002, Berger decided to keep the course and its restaurant open.
County Commissioner Donna Fiala had hoped to purchase and maintain Ironwood. She said the maintenance estimates for the Florida golf course, provided by staff, were too high.
“She didn’t like the cost figures that we had, but I believe the staff’s analysis of financial feasibility was pretty much dead on,” Mudd said. “It’s a hard business around here. There’s so many darn golf courses.”
At the commissioners’ June 7 meeting, Fiala’s request that the county look into purchasing the Riviera Golf Course in East Naples was met with silence.
“The golf course is in good shape and doesn’t need any improvements, so it’s not like we’d have to rescue the course,” she said. “I thought this would be the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Developers with MDG Capital, well-known throughout the county for their work force housing projects, hoped to purchase the golf course in January to develop affordable housing condominiums. The golf course winds between 692 manufactured and single-family homes that are scattered throughout the 55-and-over Riviera Golf Estates community.
Residents protested the development, saying their contracts guaranteed that the golf course view they enjoyed would remain just that in perpetuity. Developers with MDG are in the process of reviewing contracts to determine whether they have the right to build over the golf course.
“I am for affordable housing, because I have children of my own who need that,” said Kay Randazzo, president of the Riviera Homeowners Association. “I just wasn’t supportive of them building condos in the middle of our community.”
Changing a community golf course to an affordable housing development can be fairly simple, said Cormac Giblin, housing and grants manager for the county.
The first step for would-be developers would be to seek permission to rezone the land from Florida golf course to residential, Giblin said. During that process, county planners and commissioners attempt to decide whether the new zoning will be compatible with the overall plan for the area, known as a comprehensive plan.
The good news for developers, Giblin said, is affordable housing developments in place of golf courses are often changes consistent with the comprehensive plan.
“There are no prohibitions regarding golf courses,” Giblin said. “A golf course is not some kind of protected use, like preservation lands or wetlands.
“There’s nothing like that there to stop development.”
The tough part comes later, when developers need to have a super majority - approval from four out of five commissioners - to rezone the land. If the new development will generate too much traffic, harm protected areas or create conflicts with the comprehensive plan, it may not get approved.
But if everything checks out, there is little that can be done to stop development from overtaking a golf course, he said.
“If something meets the plan, and it meets the code, you’re supposed to be able to do it,” Giblin said. “The county lives by the code, and it dies by the code.”
One sure-fire way to halt development of a Florida golf course would be for county commissioners to buy it themselves.
Mudd said the main reason commissioners balked at opportunities to own a golf course are the high expenses involved. Maintaining a golf course, and keeping greens fees low, is hard work, he said. Especially when the competition for top courses is as steep as it is in Collier County.
“In order to have a public golf course, there’s got to be people out there who can’t have golf anywhere else,” Mudd said. “As land (for affordable housing) gets scarce, there’s going to be all kinds of pressure to develop the remaining parcels differently.”
While Mudd acknowledged that Florida golf courses located within communities aren’t necessarily safe from affordable housing development, he said Collier residents will never have to worry about losing all of their links.
“Golf courses are everywhere you look,” Mudd said. “There’s won’t be a shortage of Florida golf courses here at all.”
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