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Developer proposes golf club bailout
By DAN DeWITT BROOKSVILLE -- Tommy Bronson, a Brooksville developer and retired mining executive, made a proposal he said will bail out the financially strapped Brooksville Golf and Country Club and benefit a nearby subdivision he is planning, Majestic Oaks. Bronson offered club members a chance to buy shares in the development, which will be built on about 400 acres owned by Bronson's family and Neil Law Jr., another longtime Brooksville resident. The county rezoned the land, which is just south of the club, and approved plans for the project in 1988. Bronson said he and Law decided to begin building now because the area seems ready for a development of this size -- as many as 1,000 units. If all the shares are sold, the investing members would own 20 percent of the development, and the club, which is deeply in debt, would be part of the development. Club members, or at least the ones who invested, would retain voting rights in the club, said Joe Mason, a Brooksville lawyer and longtime club member. Mason said the club is about $1.1-million in debt, some of which stems from building a new clubhouse about four years ago. It needs an additional $600,000 in renovations, he said, including new greens and an irrigation system. Those expenses would be more than covered by the stock offering -- 2,500 shares at $1,000 apiece -- which is expected to generate $2.5-million. "You put the money into the club and you get a share of the development," Mason said. "If you can get an investment return by putting your money into the club, it seems like an advantageous thing." The remaining $800,000 from the stock sale, he said, could be used to make further improvements to the club. John Caverly, the treasurer and secretary of the country club's board, said these might include enlarging the driving range and building a fitness center to attract younger members. "As you may be aware, young people don't join country clubs," he said. Enlisting members is especially difficult, he said, because the county already has 19 courses, with more on the way. Bronson said the development will put a pool of potential members right next to the club. Caverly said Bronson will be able to market his development as a golf course community without having to build a golf course. "We need them, and they need us," he said. Ray Stanbro, another member, agreed with only the last part of that statement. The developers would get a good deal, he said. Club members would forfeit ownership of the club while spending more money than necessary to pay the debts and refurbish it. His main objection, though, is that high-density development will crowd the quiet fairways of the country club east of Brooksville. He and his wife moved here from California a year ago, and, he said, few Brooksville residents know the long-term consequences of sprawl, including higher cost of services and reduced quality of life. "That's what we ran from, screaming, in California," he said. "The thing that brought us to Brooksville is that it wasn't Pinellas County." But the question before club members was not whether they wanted the development. It is coming no matter what, Bronson said. He and Law need neither a change in the comprehensive plan nor zoning, which allows for multifamily as well as single-family units and a small amount of commercial space, said Jerry Greif of the Hernando County Planning Department. Bronson and Law would need to submit new plans, he said, though these may eventually go to the city. Bill Geiger, the city's community development director, said the city has first right to serve development in that part of the county. Also, he said, part of the property abuts the city's boundaries, meaning annexation is possible. Whether the plan goes to the city or the county, Bronson said, it will include about 120 acres of preserved land and will accommodate the proposed Good Neighbor Trail, a bicycle and walking trail that runs through the property. He wants to reroute it from the middle of the tract to the southern edge, he said. That would be acceptable, said Dennis Dix, the county's transportation planning coordinator. He also said Bronson's interest may speed up construction of the trail, which has been in the planning stages for nearly a decade. The trail, like the golf course, could also benefit Bronson, Greif said. "Trails, if they are properly built into a project, can really enhance it," he said.
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From today's Hernando Times Editorial Letters |
