Sale of golf course tees off residents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Anna Varela
May 11, 2006
When Linda Jones and her husband, Robert, bought the lot for their home backing onto Lanier Golf Club 18 years ago, they thought they had found the perfect spot.
The big windows of their vaulted living room and eat-in kitchen look onto the back deck, a strip of trees, and the fifth tee just beyond. Jones and her husband felt secure that they would always have a lovely view with the green as the backdrop for their south Forsyth home.
But a few months ago, they learned what many homeowners who live near golf courses in metro Atlanta have discovered in recent years -- more and more courses are being sold to make way for development.
"We wanted to live here because there would never be anyone to live behind us," Jones said. "It's just so nice and quiet out here that it's just going to be heartbreaking."
Lanier Golf Club, the oldest golf course in Forsyth County, appears likely to join the ranks of courses that have given way to home construction, including Canterbury Golf Club in east Cobb, Centennial in Acworth, and roughly half a dozen on Atlanta's Southside and near I-20 east of the Perimeter.
Martha Kirouac, a senior director at the Georgia State Golf Association, said golf courses are competing for a static number of players. That means the owners of some older courses are forced to make tough choices.
"I think you'll continue to see this happen with some clubs where their expenses have just outrun their ability to make it playing golf," Kirouac said. "The closer you are to the city, the more the value of that land gets to a point where it makes more sense to build on it than to continue to operate it as a golf course."
Kirouac said her organization could not offer firm figures on course closings in Georgia.
Nationwide, the equivalent of 94 18-hole courses closed in 2005, according to the National Golf Foundation. A foundation report says that 54 percent of those closures were because of development, most of it residential.
Lanier Golf Club opened in 1970. Jack Manton, one of the owners, didn't want to talk about the club's finances, but said deciding to sell was difficult. Club members were given a guarantee that they could play at Lanier at least through the end of 2006, he said.
Manton said he and co-owner George Bagley were careful about whom they sold to.
The developer, Wellstone Communities, wants to build a community with an emphasis on housing for active seniors. Single-family houses would sell for $600,000-$800,000 and townhouses would sell for $375,000-$400,000, Manton said. Those factors make Wellstone's plan a good fit for the community, he said.
"We thought it would have minimum traffic issues for the county ... and it would have a minimum impact on the county schools," Manton said. "We thought they offered us the best opportunity to do a compatible development without harming the neighbors."
John B. Lowery, the president and CEO of Wellstone, said his company plans several public meetings to get input from the community before going to the county commissioners this summer to seek rezoning for the project.
Wellstone, which is based in Cumming, has built developments for empty nesters and active seniors in Texas and South Carolina. The company is already building townhouses in south Forsyth near the proposed development at the golf course.
Lowery said the land use plan for the golf course calls for setting aside about 25 percent of the land for commercial use. Rather than build a shopping center or office park, Lowery said the company wants to build "a campus-like community" centered around a group of two-story buildings with a dining club and services for the development's residents on the ground floor and residences for seniors on the upper floor.
"Seniors are typically pushed to the side," Lowery said. "We actually want them to become the focal point.
But some people who live near the golf course just want the land to stay the way it is.
Gerry Sullivan, president of the recently incorporated Save Lanier Golf Course LLC, built his home on the golf course three years ago. "It was told to me that it was a golf course lot," Sullivan said. "I liked the idea of having a park setting in my back yard."
Sullivan said residents worry that Wellstone's development could end up being acres of high-density rentals. They don't want to see more homes or businesses on the two-lane roads in the area. And they raise questions about the possible effect of more development on Lake Lanier and area creeks.
The organization is raising money to hire a lawyer, and Sullivan said homeowners plan to fight.
"Our intentions are to show that the best use of this property is what it is today -- a golf course," Sullivan said.
Jones, who has donated $300 to the legal fund, knows that it won't be an easy fight. She's lived in the area for 30 years and has watched Ga. 400 go from a little-used artery to a traffic-choked nightmare.
"I know growth is inevitable, but...boy, you sure hate to see it when it happens in your backyard."
Photo: Linda Jones and her husband have lived for 18 years next to the fifth tee of Lanier Golf Club, which may join others sold for development. PHIL SKINNER / Staff
