PALM BEACH, Florida — GL Homesis preparing to build on two golf courses in the western suburbs of this county and the public won't have a say in them, and a vote won't have to take place in the respective municipalities.
That's because the developer is using a new state law called Florida’s Infill Redevelopment Act.
Enacted in May, the law is designed to make it easier to convert certain environmentally affected properties in urban areas, including golf courses, into housing. The law applies to Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
The golf course projects will be at the still-operating Village Golf Club in Royal Palm Beach and the shuttered Polo West course in Wellington. They could be among the first pursued under the new law.
“This is a
terrible law,” said Ray Liggins, Royal Palm Beach village manager. “It is so bad that the governor should call a special session to repeal it.”
Wellington Village Manager Jim Barnes said he, too, is upset that Polo West could be developed without a public hearing.
Environmentally affected property generally means land whose environmental condition limits, complicates or influences how it can be developed or redeveloped.
Golf courses often fit the definition because most of them need some type of remediation to remove the pesticides that have been used over the years.
Stand-alone golf courses have been targeted for years by developers for conversion to housing and other uses in residential communities. GL Homes has already undertaken several such projects. It is currently redeveloping the former Falls Country Club near Jog and Hypoluxo roads near Lake Worth Beach.
The previous golf course conversions have elicited criticism from homeowners and others decrying the loss of community greenspace and recreational features.
Golfers, others upset over impending loss of golf courses
Sal Cangelosi, 84, has a home on the ninth hole and has been golfing at Village Golf Club for more than 30 years.
“This is going to be tough to take,” he said Nov. 9. “I have been playing here two to three times a week. It is still affordable, and there won’t be many of them left now.”
Liggins lamented the loss of golf courses, and he insisted the Village Golf Club was financially successful.
“What this is going to do is ensure that the only golf courses left to play on will be those for the very wealthy,” Liggins said. “It is not that the Village Golf Club was losing money. It got an offer too good to refuse.”
Managing partner Dan Pesant acknowledged to The Palm Beach Post that the past five years have been strong for the course.
“We really are one of the few affordable courses left,” Pesant said. “It is bittersweet to shut down, but the capital investment needed to maintain and upgrade the course is enormous. The owners decided it was time to sell.”
How many housing units can GL Homes build on golf club land?
On Nov. 3, GL Homes bought the 175-acre Village Golf Club, an 18-hole course that has been a fixture in the community since 1968. The course is scheduled to close Dec. 6.
A GL Homes spokesperson confirmed that the company has bought the Royal Palm Beach property as well as Polo West in Wellington and plans to build under the Infill Redevelopment Act.
The state law limits residential density either to the average density of the surrounding neighborhood or 25 units per acre, depending on the circumstances. Liggins said GL Homes could build more than 1,500 units without having to present its plans at a public meeting followed by a Village Council vote.
The statute applies to parcels of at least 5 acres that qualify as environmentally impacted land and meet additional requirements involving their location and adjoining uses.
Closed recreational properties, including golf courses, receive specific treatment under the law.
Golf courses can have environmental contamination associated with the historic use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. The law is designed, in part, to encourage the remediation and redevelopment of environmentally compromised infill land.
Barnes in Wellington expects the development to contain about 400 homes, although he said the law could allow substantially more. “We will work with GL as much as we can to avoid negative impacts,” Barnes said.
He noted that the Polo West golf course has been fallow for more than 10 years. One benefit, he said, is that GL Homes would have to address any environmental contamination associated with past herbicide and pesticide use. They have experience doing that, he added.
GL Homes declined to say what it plans to build at Village Golf Club. It bought the land from another homebuilder, 13th Floor Homes. That price has not been disclosed yet.
13th Floor submitted a proposal several years ago that called for 450 homes on the southern portion of the property. Residents pushed back strongly against the project, and the Village Council refused to allow it to move forward.
Liggins said that rather than go through another public hearing process, the developer lobbied the Legislature last year for passage of the new law.
Residents opposed to converting the golf course created a website called Save Our Green Space. They argue that development would hurt property values by increasing traffic and density while reducing green space.
Liggins questioned why the Legislature would pass a law that could allow thriving golf courses to be sold for redevelopment without the traditional local zoning review. The law, he said, creates an incentive for owners of viable golf courses to shut down and pursue residential development.
Liggins said efforts are already underway to persuade the new Legislature to repeal the law, but he acknowledged that there may be little the village can do to prevent it from being applied to Village Golf Club.
“That’s absurd,” Liggins said. “It will have an enormous impact on our community, and there is not much we can do about it.”
Mike Diamond is a journalist atThe Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida law could let developer bulldoze golf courses for housing without public vote
