Source: Detroit Free Press
Good-bye, greenways. We'll miss you, wetlands. Farewell, farms.
Macomb County residents are no strangers to parting with open space as developers gobble up land in their backyards to construct homes and retail space.
Now it appears golf courses are the next frontier, with at least six projects under way.
"It's more than a trend," said Nancy Orewyler, who is fighting efforts to develop part of Salt River Golf Course in Chesterfield Township, where she lives. "Land has become so valuable that these people who own these golf courses can't say no to the amount of money they're being offered."
In 2003, a handful of developers bought Partridge Creek Golf Course in Clinton Township for about $38 million, planning to build homes. About 5 miles away in Macomb Township, Wolverine Golf Club was sold for residential development. In Washington Township, condominiums are replacing the 14-acre driving range at Johnny Appleseed Cider Mill/Fun Center.
Sycamore Hills, Hickory Hollow and Tee-J's, all Macomb Township courses, are slated to be developed, too.
"It used to be lots of farms and things like that," said Steve Sadowski, a Shelby Township resident who golfs at a few Macomb County courses.
"Now that farms are gone, the only place you can get open space is a golf course. Now those are going away," he said Monday. Salt River appears to be next.
Owners have asked to rezone part of the property from commercial to residential. The 13-acre parcel holds a bowling alley, bar and banquet hall. The golf course already is zoned residential.
"The golf course is not imminent for development, but that could happen down the line," said Janice Giese, Chesterfield Township planning administrator.
The township's planning board tabled the rezoning request until Jan. 25. An attorney for the owners did not return calls for comment.
The list of Macomb County golf courses, now at about 30, definitely is shrinking, said Stephen Cassin, executive director of Macomb County planning and economic development. But he said he's not too worried.
"I don't think it's anything to be overly concerned about," Cassin said last week. "We recognize that open space is leaving. That is a concern. But we've tried to create additional open spaces."
Cassin notes the Macomb Orchard Trail, a partially completed recreational trail that someday will snake through 23.5 miles of the county. He also said the county is drafting sample ordinances for communities that want to protect woodlands, wetlands and floodplains.
Preserving golf courses, he said, may be a losing battle as the demand for land keeps pace with Macomb County's growing population. "It doesn't make economic sense for owners of golf courses to hang on to their property," Cassin said.
The owners know that all too well.
Jack Oddo sold 14 of Johnny Appleseed's 18.5 acres for condos; he is planning a shopping center for the remaining land. Maintaining the recreation complex has become too costly.
"Do you sweat it out every day for peanuts, or do you flip it, make money and invest it elsewhere?" he asked. "People who want to stop it should buy the property."
So far, Tom Roehl has resisted selling his course. His great-grandfather opened Maple Lane Golf Club in Sterling Heights in 1926. Three generations later, the course belongs to him and his 10 brothers and sisters.
Roehl said developers approach them with offers once a month, if not more often. They want to keep the course in the family, but they also want to be prudent.
"Anything's for sale at the appropriate price," he said. "It's very enticing with the amount of money that real estate developers are throwing around."
Ironically, closing some golf courses has meant better business at remaining courses, like Maple Lane. Roehl said he's seen two years of profits after 20 years of losses.
But he's not sure it's enough.
"You've got to look at the total return," he said. "How much money can a golf course make as a golf course versus the return on the value of that land?"
Golfers like Sadowski of Shelby Township say they wonder about the future of their favorite spots. Sadowski and his buddies have hit Maple Lane for the past 15 New Year's Days for a round of golf, come snow or sleet. They were treated to warmer temperatures Saturday.
"It would be very sad to see Maple Lane close," said Sadowski, 38, a financial analyst for Visteon. "There are a lot of fond memories we've had there that would close with it. I'm sure a lot of people could say that."
The loss of recreational space isn't the only issue. Environmental experts warn that losing golf courses also means losing valuable green space that helps absorb storm water and potentially avert flooding.The Rochester-based Clinton River Watershed Council cautions that some developments have drained improperly treated water into the river and that "any kind of development creates storm water runoff," said Jessica Pitelka Opfer, the council's executive director. One problem, the council said, is storm water is not always handled properly before it is pumped into the river. That water can add to the river's pollution and endanger its inhabitants like coldwater trout.
The good news: City officials and developers are improving ways they handle storm water, Opfer said. "Our whole point is that we can have development and environmental quality at the same time," she said.
Kathleen Bolton, coordinator for a preservationist group called the Macomb Land Conservancy, said she believes "golf courses are the new farm."
Many Macomb County farms disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s as farmers sold land to developers who offered more money than crop profits could generate. While some farmers retired, others moved to the northern end of the county, where land was more abundant and often cheaper. Bolton said she predicts this may be the trend with golf courses as well. That would be a dilemma for the Romeo-based conservancy as it aims to achieve a balance between development and land preservation. Bolton engaged in a four-year battle against developing a 180-acre wetlands parcel into a golf course at 31 Mile and North Avenue in Ray Township. She said she lost the fight in 2004.
Communities need to map out and implement guidelines to preserve open space, she said. "You're not going to stop development, but you can guide it and I feel we're very ill-prepared for it. We don't have the ordinances to address it when it gets here," she said.
Golfers from across metro Detroit have putted at the family-owned Partridge course in Clinton Township for more than four decades.
But construction has begun on the 333-acre site for single-family houses, condominiums, town homes and a senior housing complex, said Clinton Township Planning Director Carlo Santia. A different company also is assessing the parcel for an outdoor mall, but has not submitted plans to the township, Santia said.
Clinton Township-based Trinity Land, a John Carlo Inc. division, is one of the developers working on the housing part of the project. "The issue is location, to use a cliche. You've got basically everything around it that's been developed. All the utilities are there," Trinity Vice President Richard Ives has said.
Course general manager Paul Duda said selling the property was a financial decision.
"What they can pay you an acre, you can never make that kind of money in the golf business," Duda said.
Orewyler and other preservationists see danger signs as one course after another is sold.
"People like green," Orewyler said Dec. 28, referring to grass, not cash. "That's why people like golf. It isn't just that they're whacking a little white ball around. They like green, and they can pretend for a while that the world is glorious and beautiful."
