Article Courtesy of The Daytona News-Journal

By Jennifer Edwards-Park

Published January 10, 2016

PALM COAST — Owners of a defunct golf course in Palm Coast's L section say they're almost ready to unveil plans for the property. Meanwhile, city code enforcement fines continue to mount at $500 per day.
  
The former Matanzas Woods Golf Course off Lakeview Drive contains 275 or so acres of former fairways and greens along with vandalized buildings that once comprised the course's clubhouse. Golf hasn't been played there for nearly a decade.

And Stephen Richardson of The Group Golf of Palm Coast LLC, which recently paid off the note on the foreclosed property for about $205,000, isn't ready to reveal the fate of the course. "We have been approached by quite a few people about doing something with it and we're taking meetings this week and next week on the property — not for sale or purchase — on different concepts," Richardson said. "When we are ready to present it (to the city), we will present it. We are moving forward." Meanwhile, the tally for code enforcement fines was at $66,500 as of Wednesday, city spokeswoman Cindi Lane wrote in an email. "The fine continues to run until compliance," she wrote.

Fields that were once part of the Matanzas Woods Golf Course in the L-section of Palm Coast have become overgrown, and no golf has been played there in nearly a decade.

   
Mayor Jon Netts said, "It’s not a question of being maintained to golf course standards, but you have to maintain the property to a certain extent."

Richardson doesn't want an acrimonious relationship with the city.

"Our tractor person will be starting again at the end of next week to keep (the grass areas) maintained," he said. "I have been meeting with the neighbors. There hasn't been any complaints or anything else."

He said workers had been cleaning up trash and debris at the clubhouse area. And despite appearances, "there's nothing wrong with the buildings. Kids had gone (in the building) and trashed the drywall."

He said that during the late summer, three different tractors and various bush hogs worked on the golf course but there was a three-month stretch when it rained almost daily.

"We've got a different tractor and ... we'll be back at it next week," he said Wednesday. "We're relatively close to presenting the community with what our plans are."

Some city and county officials doubt very much that those plans will include reopening a golf course.

Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner pointed to the plummeting value of golf courses nationwide, using as an example a course on the beach side that went from being worth $37 million to just $4 million in just a few years.

"Nobody wants to build golf courses," he said. "How much is the city losing on its (taxpayer-supported) golf course? Golf courses don’t make money."

He also said that right now, the Group Golf parcel is zoned recreational, which limits its value. Gardner's office had estimated that at around $204,000 but he thinks that might be a little high because that figure doesn't take into account the state of the buildings.

"Unless you have the right to get rid of the golf course and build subdivisions, what are you going to do with it?” Gardner said.

Netts doesn't see the land ever being used as a golf course again either.

"A number of residents in the area are insisting that the property be operated and maintained as a golf course. Given what we see in terms of national trends, that’s probably not realistic," he said. "People aren’t going to invest money unless there is a reasonable return on investment."

He said one option might indeed be to allow building on the property and turn a portion of the course into a park.

"There is property next to the course already zoned single-family residential," Netts said. "It probably would not be deleterious to the neighborhood, and might be beneficial."

If the owners' plans include building on the property, the process to get approval will take a while, said Lane, the city spokeswoman.

"Any zoning change of the property from golf course to residential would require the change to go through the public process. That includes neighborhood meetings, public hearing with the Planning & Land Development and Regulation Board, and two public hearings with the City Council," she wrote in an email. "The owner would have to apply for any rezoning change and then would meet with city staff first. The process would take months."

Lane said as of Wednesday, the city has not received any applications with regard to the property.