Despite Objections, Quail Hollow Golf Course To Be Replaced With Homes?

Residents who live near Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club (G&CC) may not be able to save their golf course, but their concerns about flooding and traffic may help determine exactly how many homes are built on the land that currently is home to their beloved links.

At a public hearing on Jan. 12 at the Dade City Courthouse, QHG&CC’s owner asked to have its request for rezoning the property for 400 homes delayed while it looks into developing a plan that wouldn’t require a zoning change, per the suggestion of the Pasco County Developmental Review Committee (DRC).

Andre Carollo’s Pasco Office Park LLC, the owner of the golf course (located at 6225 Old Pasco Rd., north of Wesley Chapel Blvd.), was represented at the DRC meeting by his attorney Barbara Wilhite.

Carollo has been seeking to rezone the property from R1, which allows for homes on 20,000-sq.-ft. lots, to a Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), which allows for homes on 4,000–sq.-ft. lots.

In essence, Carollo is hoping to squeeze roughly 400 homes on the 175-acre site, as opposed to the 283 he would be limited to under the current zoning.

More than 100 residents were in attendance at the meeting, and two dozen spoke. While many lamented the loss of green space and privacy, one of the biggest concerns was the 6,811-yard golf course’s propensity for flooding.

The belief of residents is that the golf course can’t handle 400 homes, and that construction of those houses would exacerbate a long-standing problem.

“During rainy season, it’s a mess,’’ said Linda Garrett, who lives on Sandbagger Ln. “When it rains, it floods the course and fills a ditch on the side of my house. How is the flooding and runoff not going to affect us?”

Chief assistant county attorney David Goldstein asked if there was a flood study or any experts or staff members who could definitively answer if the land could handle 400 homes, but none were forthcoming.

Because DRC members have only seen plans for 400 homes, Goldstein asked to see a plan for 283 homes.

“It would be helpful to conceptually analyze what the property would look like as R1,’’ he said, for the sake of comparison.

Wilhite asked for time to produce such a plan and said she will present it at a future DRC meeting.  The project would need final approval from the Pasco Board of County Commissioners.

The delay seemed to please the crowd crammed into the courthouse, although Goldstein warned that the DRC didn’t have the power to save the golf course.

“I’d hate to think that anybody in this audience thinks this board has the power to require this land to stay a golf course…because we don’t,” Goldstein said. “This land is zoned R1. The DRC can recommend it stays R1. But, it is not within our purview (to say) that it stays a golf course.”

And it won’t.

“I understand that everybody still wants the golf course and would hope my client maintains it so they could have a park behind their house forever, but that’s not the reality,’’ Wilhite said.

Someone in the crowd yelled out, “Then why did you sell it to us like that?”

Wilhite responded, “The reality is, the property has always been zoned for residential use; it was never zoned to be a golf course.”

Two DRC members — assistant county administrators Cathy Pearson and Flip Mellinger — expressed condolences for those who bought homes years ago, at a premium price, that were on a golf course but now appear likely to be surrounded by new homes in the future.

Despite its residential zoning, Mellinger said there was no mistaking it was sold as a golf course community. He had just listened to residents from Sandbagger Ln., Golf Course Lp., Country Club Rd. and 9 Iron Ct. plead their cases.

“When I look at the street names, you can’t tell me it wasn’t sold to them as a golf course community,’’ Mellinger said. He added that the course was built in 1965, before the county had zoning laws, and in the 1990s took advantage of the new rules to change it to an R1. He said he would recommend that it stay as an R1.

Quail Hollow G&CC has had a up-and-down existence the past decade, even closing for two years in 2008-10. Carollo bought the property for $1.7 million in 2010 and the nicely refurbished course and clubhouse drew rave reviews when they re-opened.