Although the Pebble Creek Golf Club has been closed for several years, members of the group called Save Pebble Creek, organized by long-time Pebble Creek resident Leslie Green, have been doing everything they could to have the golf club reopen, rather than become single-family homes.
Yesterday, the group and the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) won a significant victory in their efforts to prevent golf course owner Bill Place and his Ace Golf from rezoning the 149-acre property and selling it to GL Homes, which was planning to build 250 single-family homes on the golf course site.
In July of 2023, the attempt to rezone the golf course property was denied 5-2 by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), after Comm. Hagan said he had received 1,800 letters from residents of the community, the vast majority of which were in opposition to the rezoning.
But, in October of last year, the home builder appealed the county commission’s denial of the rezoning request to Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Paul Huey and, on June 24, 2024, Judge Huey “quashed” the BOCC’s denial of the rezoning petition which means, in legal terms, “to set aside or void.” Judge Huey’s ruling on the developer’s appeal was that, “The court cannot find that the Board of County Commissioners relied on competent, substantial evidence when it denied GL Homes’ proposal.”
The county appealed Judge Huey’s decision to the Second District of the District Court of Appeal of Florida, which overturned that decision and quashed the lower court’s order that would have allowed the rezoning.
Commissioner Hagan said of yesterday’s ruling, “I am very pleased to report that the Second District Court of Appeal agreed with the County’s rezoning denial and overturned the Circuit Court’s decision. I would like to thank you for your support and vigilance throughout this difficult ordeal. We would not have won without you!” He also previously said that the county would consider buying the golf course “if the price were right.”
Green echoed Hagan’s sentiments regarding the latest decision: “Thanks to the rallying of the community and to our Commissioner Ken Hagan’s efforts, we have accomplished our goal of no rezoning that will keep the golf course land around which our entire neighborhood is based protected from development. I hope that we can now work with the landowner to find a more mutually agreeable solution. Ultimately, we would wish to have another golf course operator step in. Commissioner Hagan had mentioned in a Townhall meeting that the county would consider buying it for a municipal golf course. This would meet another goal of ours, which is to avoid having the toxins that lie under the ground dug up for remediation. Now, the land can be used for its intended purpose. I personally look forward to the next step.”
Place said that he would have no comment on the most recent ruling “until GL Homes reviews its options early next week.”
We also had not yet received comment from either of the homeowners associations in Pebble Creek.
