Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By Martin E. Comas,

Published July 6, 2014

       
Sandy Taylor bought her home overlooking the 13th fairway of the Rolling Hills Golf Club 25 years ago because of the quiet neighborhood and large oak trees. Since her retirement in 2002, she has played a round of golf nearly every morning on the course, built in 1926. 

  
But now, Taylor and other residents worry about a plan to turn one of the region's oldest golf courses into hundreds of new homes. 

  
They're not alone. 
 
Real Estate Buyers Clubs and Associations Casselberry DeLand Longwood (Seminole, Florida) Volusia County Altamonte Springs Golf courses throughout the country, including many in Central Florida, are being bulldozed and turned into subdivisions as owners discover it makes more financial sense to sell to a developer rather than continue maintaining 18 fairways and greens at a time of waning recreational interest in the game.

   
Just a few miles away, in nearby Longwood, the Sabal Point Country Club closed in 2006, and the fairways are overgrown with weeds and brush. Last year, the owner of the property submitted plans to Seminole County to build homes and townhouses on most of the old golf course.
   

The owners of the Casselberry Golf club are considering selling their land to a developer. And in Volusia County, the DeLand Country Club closed in 2012, and a developer has since submitted plans to build homes at that site, too.

    
At Rolling Hills, owner Southern Pioneers Inc. plans to sell the property to an unnamed buyer on June 30. Also, a pair of developers recently submitted plans to Seminole County to change the land use on the property that would allow as many as four homes per acre.

  
"It's not about whether you play golf or not," Taylor said. "This is about Seminole County losing open space for new homes."

   
Lily Wang, a real estate agent handling the sale of Rolling Hills on behalf of Southern Pioneer, said negotiations with a prospective buyer are ongoing and that she could not reveal any more information, including a selling price.

  
Developers Chris Von Hohenstraeten and Bob Holston, who submitted an application to Seminole County proposing that the land-use designation on the course's 120 acres be changed from recreation to low density residential, did not return calls asking for comment.

   
Residents of Rolling Hills, just north of the Altamonte Mall, are now weighing their options. Those include asking Seminole County to form a special taxing district to buy the course, or cobbling enough money among themselves to purchase it.

   
It would be years before any new homes would be built. According to a deed restriction in 2004, when Rolling Hills was sold to Southern Pioneer, the property must be used as a golf course until 2019. 

   
"But that's only four and half years away, and that's not a very long time," resident Chip Harkins said. "After that, anything can happen."

  
On a Friday evening this month, more than 200 residents packed into the Rolling Hills clubhouse to talk about the pending sale and what would it mean to their community.

  
"As you can see, we are all very worried because we would lose our lifestyle," resident Kit Bradshaw said. "People bought their homes here because of the golf course …. We would lose our quality of life."

  
Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine said it's unlikely the county would consider buying the golf course. 

  
"The county is not in the business of running a golf course, and then there would be pressure all over the county from golf courses being converted [to homes]," he said.  

   
However, Constantine said a developer would face several hurdles to convert the golf course into homes, including building new roads, hooking up the new homes to water and sewer lines from Altamonte Springs [the existing homes in Rolling Hills are on septic tanks], and abiding by the deed restrictions.

   
Constantine, who is a member of the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, said that as more golf course fairways are being converted into homes, local communities should look at their land-development rules to protect existing homeowners.

    
"It would behoove us as leaders of Central Florida to look for a long-term solution," Constantine said. "We've got to see how we can address the concerns of the greater public."