Biz Now Article Neglects Land Use Issues: Goodbye, Florida Golf Courses. Hello, Development

A recent article on BizNow saying that golf courses are ideal candidates for redevelopment neglects to mention that underlying land uses often do not allow the property to be developed.  

https://www.bisnow.com/south-florida/news/construction-development/florida-golf-courses-development-87959 


At Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark, we have had a number of courses for sale in recent years that prospective buyers have wanted to develop, but because of the zoning on the property, a county's unwillingness to allow development or other land use restrictions, development could not happen. We know of many other courses where this is the case.

Prospective buyers are not willing to take a chance on purchasing the property without the proper zoning. Sellers are not willing to tie up the course for the length of time that it might take for redevelopment permission to be obtained knowing that there is no guarantee that the use will be granted.


The article cites some instances of redevelopment on land where the underlying zoning was already residential as opposed to PUD or open space. The zoning was already there, or the owners spent the time and money to make it possible to develop by a future owner. 

That same article also refers to an article on www.TCPalm.com that discusses the amount of money municipal courses are losing in some locales.  
 
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/shaping-our-future/growth/2018/04/18/florida-municipal-golf-courses-have-lost-nearly-100-m-over-past-five-years/407554002/

Unfortunately more investigation would reveal that strange things happen in the accounting departments with municipally owned courses.  A colleague of mine in Illinois was trying to get his municipality to sell their golf course because it was consistently losing money. But one reason was that the city would continue to pay the summer employees during the winter, even though they were doing other city jobs.  And they charged that expense to the golf course even though it should have gone to something else. 

Just saying that a municipal golf course is losing money without studying the underlying reasons, obscures the issue.  Cities make choices in terms of keeping employees, paying pensions, etc, things that would never be done in a privately owned golf course --not private, privately owned. In addition, cities and towns make commitments to provide recreational opportunities for residents that are quality of life issues for the residents.

Then there's the other problem . If city land is sold, who gets the money?  What does the city or town do with that revenue?  Pay its debt? Distribute to city residents? The latter will never happen, and so for a variety of reasons, cities and towns keep golf courses and often do not run them profitably.