City Council on Tuesday granted approvals that some officials hope will end years of disputes and uncertainty about the former Signature at West Neck golf course property.<\/p>\n
The 18-hole course\u2019s closure in 2019 led to what one recently characterized as a \u201cland war\u201d about the course’s conditions and its potential development.<\/p>\n
Council approved rezoning 86 acres for 143 units of 55-and-older housing and a nine -hole course near the Indian River Plantation and Villages at West Neck neighborhoods. The project is called the Preserve at West Neck.<\/p>\n
The vote followed hours of public comment. At the top of the meeting, Mayor Bobby Dyer said more than 110 people had signed up to speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of those King Solomon decisions and there was a lot of emotion in the room today and I\u2019m sympathetic,\u201d Dyer said nearly five hours later.<\/p>\n
Developer Harrison and Lear got the approval a year after withdrawing another plan that had housing and more community access to open space but not golf. The Preserve at West Neck involves Marc Leishman, a professional golfer who lives in Indian River Plantation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to try and help it become a golf community again,\u201d he said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Signature was considered the open space part of a 1999 plan for the age-restricted West Neck neighborhood, which has more than 930 homes.<\/p>\n
Critics said new housing shouldn\u2019t be allowed on land that counted toward earlier development. Proponents presented the project as a solution to controversy about the state of the former course, which led to litigation and, following a 2023 brush fire, safety concerns among neighbors.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Barbara Henley, whose district includes the area, moved to deny the developer\u2019s applications because they aren\u2019t consistent with city policy and would negatively affect the Villages at West Neck\u2019s quality of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do this to this well-established neighborhood, every neighborhood in the city should feel threatened that any day they could be threatened with development, particularly if they have open space that they thought was protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her motion failed, 3-8, and Councilmember Amelia Ross-Hammond moved for approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cChange is constant,\u201d Ross-Hammond said, noting the proposal could be a compromise.<\/p>\n
It passed, 9-2, with Henley and Councilmember Stacy Cummings voting no.<\/p>\n
City staff had recommended denying the plan because of the density of the project and lack of open space compared to guidelines for the area, while noting positive aspects of the plan. Last month, planning commissioners recommended approval.<\/p>\n
During the council meeting Tuesday, Sharon Williams, president of the West Neck Community Association, said the former course was supposed to stay open without housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue tonight is not about a new nine -hole golf course, as the zoning is already in place for that,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe golf course can be rejuvenated at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fred Giles, an Indian River Plantation resident, said the plan could \u201cbreathe life back into the golf course, albeit only nine holes\u201d and add to both neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don’t go forward with this project, what do you think is going to happen?\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s been six or seven years and there’s no other prospects out there. It’s just going to get worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council on Tuesday granted approvals that some officials hope will end years of disputes and uncertainty about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-547012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}