County officials say it's time to start building an 18-hole golf course atop the old county landfill on Lantana Road.
Greens fees on this public course may be the cheapest in Palm Beach County because of money saved by county commissioners in a deal where the county's Solid Waste Authority will pay half of the golf course's $8 million cost in reclaiming the former landfill site for public use.
The SWA's contribution will come partly in rich organic topsoil to be dredged this summer from Lake Osborne. The topsoil will be ideal for growing golf greens, officials predict. The SWA also will haul fill from other sites which is necessary to build the golf course.
"The county will be able to save a fair amount of money on this," SWA executive director John Booth said after meeting with county parks and recreation officials this month. "We're all pretty excited to get going on it."
"I've been pushing the last few months to get it going," said County Commissioner Warren Newell, who predicted construction will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony this fall.
The regulation course with a maximum length of 6,500 yards was originally announced two years ago.
Plans then called for the 233-acre site to also include a training center for young golfers, which would have added a driving range and five practice holes to the project.
"But it was beginning to cost so much," county parks planner Bill Wilsher said. "So we decided to take the golf for youngsters out, moving that program somewhere else."
Park planners have struggled to design a clubhouse for the new golf course.
No permanent structures can be built on the landfill itself, where a plastic lining covers garbage that still might shift and crack a building's foundation. "A trailer is all you could get away with as a clubhouse on the top of the landfill," Booth said.
Booth, Wilsher and Newell think they have a solution now. They plan to build a clubhouse on solid ground next to the landfill where the SWA leases five acres from the county at the northwest corner of Lantana and Lyons roads.
"That would make a great area to build a clubhouse," said Booth. The SWA won't need the five acres once itleaves the landfill site.
Trees will be prohibited on the golf course because roots might puncture the landfill's plastic lining, allowing gases to escape from underneath. "The trees are limited to the sides of the hill. Nothing on top," Wilsher said.
But county officials predict the golf course will nevertheless be popular because of low greens fees and the thrill of playing golf on a hill.
"We have so few changes in elevation and topography in this county," Wilsher said. "This course will have a very nice rolling feel. Kind of breezy. It will be a different golf experience."
County officials have considered the names Lantana Hills and West Lantana Park for the golf course, but have made no decision.
Fields for baseball, softball, soccer and football will be built along with tennis and basketball courts and a roller hockey rink on county property west of the golf course in 2006.
Source: Palm Beach Post (Florida)
