- April 28, 2024
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A group of frustrated Matanzas Woods-area residents have formed a committee to figure out what to do about the abandoned golf course they say is denting property values, and they’re determined to do something — even if it means picking up yard tools and cleaning up the weedy mess themselves.
“There is money to be made on just opening up the driving range,” resident and committee member Robert McKenna said. “It’s pretty much maintenance-free. You don’t have to go out there with fertilizers or anything. That money could be put back into the golf course, to open up two or three holes.”
Robert McKenna was an outspoken opponent of developer Jim Cullis’ bid to buy the course. McKenna and other residents feared the developer, who ultimately backed out, would have built homes on it.
The Matanzas Woods Golf Course, closed since 2007, is owned by The Golf Group of Palm Coast. The Golf Group bought the course several years ago, along with the Pine Lakes Golf Course and the Cypress Knoll Golf Course. The Group has reopened the other two courses, but not Matanzas Woods.
Golf Group representatives could not be reached for comment.
McKenna said a number of residents have volunteered to put in the labor to get the course working again, hole by overgrown hole.
“For most of us, this is our life savings,” he said. “We’ve got dozens of people to volunteer work. Most of these people, they bought into the community for one reason only: it was a golf course community with a golf course nearby.”
There are other possibilities, too, they say.
Resident Stu Einhorn, leading the neighborhood committee, met Tuesday afternoon with Matanzas High School Principal Chris Pryor about the possibility of using part of the property for an Olympic-size swimming pool for the school, Pryor said.
“Of course we would jump at the opportunity to have a pool,” Pryor said. The school is now using the Frieda Zamba pool and the pool at the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club for swim practice and meets.
The neighborhood committee, McKenna said, believes there might be some grant money available to build a pool if the school has a place to put it.
But the idea, at this point, is just that — an idea — and residents hope to discuss it, along with the idea of reopening the driving range with volunteer labor, with City Manager Jim Landon in a Feb. 5 meeting.
McKenna said a representative from The Golf Group has been invited, as well.
One complaint residents plan to raise with the city, McKenna said, is that the abandoned course has become an eyesore, attracting troublemakers.
McKenna said he’s seen the floor of the abandoned clubhouse littered with used hypodermic needles. Teens sometimes hang out there, too, he said.
“If the city can enforce codes, they can at least get with the owners and say, 'Look, you have got to take care of the safety issues,'” he said.
City Manager Jim Landon said the city’s code enforcement employees have spoken with The Golf Group, and that they have been “very cooperative.”
“Any time our code enforcement staff have had complaints about the property, they’ve addressed those complaints,” he said.
But some of the complaints residents have brought up, such as about the vacant clubhouse, aren’t issues the city can simply issue citations for, he said.
“The city can’t require the property owner to tear down the building just because it’s vacant,” he said. “Now, if it deteriorates to a certain condition, the city can take that action.”
Similarly, he said, the city can ask the Golf Group to mow the grass on the course — when it’s not rainy season, and too wet to mow — but it can’t require the Golf Group to keep the grass at golf course height.
Meanwhile, McKenna said, some residents are pitching in money to “explore legal options."
“We’re trying to be as friendly as possible, but we want something done,” he said. “Bringing back the golf course is the only answer to bringing back the golf course community.”
