Palm Coast Acquisition of Palm Harbor Golf Course from Centex – Update from Friends of Golf
City close to getting its municipal golf course but resident support will help
August 30, 2007 – Palm Coast, Florida – Palm Coast is close to getting its municipal golf course. The Friends of Golf sent the following message to its members. Since I wholeheartedly support this project and because I worry that it might be sidetracked by the predictable outcries of the CAVE people, I’m providing the email in its entirety to my readers. Please join the Friends of Golf in supporting the city’s acquisition of the Palm Harbor Golf Course.
Friends of Golf Email
To All Friends of Golf……………………….
Have you ever stood on the 18th tee and said to yourself, “If I can get a 5 here it’ll be my best ever round.”? If you have, you know that the key to playing that “best ever” round was concentration, commitment and a little bit of luck. Well, the Friends of Golf are in a very similar position. We’re at the 18th tee of obtaining the Palm Harbor Golf Course as our own city golf course, but as the philosopher says, “The devil’s in the details.” If we’re going to make this happen, we’re going to need concentration and commitment from every one of us. We might also need a little bit of luck. Here’s where we are.
The City and Centex have agreed on a free, contingent transfer of the golf course property from Centex to the City. The contingency is the approval of amendments to the two PUD’s they have for the Palm Harbor condos and the Palm Coast Resort. The Resort PUD needs to be amended to give the builder the option to build two smaller buildings in place of the one large building the current PUD calls for. These two smaller buildings would be on the same footprint as the original larger building but would optionally be 6 stories high instead of 8. In essence, this would present a better visual line for neighbors than the original. They would also have two additional years to begin building. At the Palm Harbor condo site they would have some minor easement issue between their property and the golf course as well as two additional years to begin building. If the City agrees to those minor changes, it gets the golf course. It’s that simple. However, Centex would not agree to give up the driving range, but did agree to a series of short-term leases so that we can have a driving range until the condo market recovers (whenever THAT happens) and the new developer wants to build.
In order to make Palm Harbor happen there are several important dates when we need your help. We really need to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the demand for a public golf course in Palm Coast over the next several weeks. If we’re successful, this may be all the involvement from you we’ll need except, of course, playing the new Palm Harbor next summer. Here are the important dates:
Tuesday, September 4th at the Community Center
5:05 PM – City Budget public hearing. It’s crucial that the capital budget gets passed as is.
6:30 PM – immediately after the budget hearing – Golf Course donation and Driving Range Lease.
Tuesday, September 18th at the Community Center
9:00 AM – Golf Course architect contract approval
5:05 PM – City Budget public hearing ( see above)
Wednesday, September 19th at the Community Center
6:30 PM – Planning and Land Development Review Board PUD Amendment public hearing.
Tuesday, October 2nd at the Community Center
6:30 PM – City Council 1st Reading of PUD Amendment
Tuesday, October 16th at the Community Center
6:30 PM – City Council 2nd Reading of PUD Amendment
Each and every one of these meetings is critical. As we’re sure you know there’s a fair amount of anti-Centex emotion in town. Some people would rather give up the golf course than give Centex anything. As I’m sure you’ll agree this is an emotional, “knee-jerk” reaction to this issue. It’s crucial to both our success as well as the City’s that we stay focused on the goal. Centex has no intention of building out these PUD’s. As quickly as they can find buyers for these developments, they’ll be out of town. Isn’t that what everyone wants? The City gets a golf course and Centex gets sent back to Texas.
Please mark your calendars and attend as many of the meetings as possible. Now is not the time to loose our focus. If we can get everyone’s concentration and commitment, we can’t loose.
See you at the meetings!!!
Palm Coast Golf Course
Sometimes we forget there are a lot of New Arrivals to Palm Coast; so in the sake of providing a little *Sense of History*, and *Sense of Place* of what all we once had we share just one of many of the very early Advertisements and Promotions for, in this case, the Palm Coast Golf Course, a.k.a. The Palm Harbor Golf Course. There were MANY Ads and Promos for the 100,000 + largest planned community in the Nation, ‘New Town’ of Palm Coast. There are also statements’…Largest Planned Community in the World…’! A lot of that was seen especially during 1974, in the Press, when ‘The Company’ made a ‘Consent Agreement’ with the F.T.C. We think the Daytona News Journal ran SEVEN weeks revealing the situation here August 17, 1975.
This is just one page of Advertising of many from at/around late 1969 – 1970, that we remain Stewards of, hoping for a Museum like Flagler Beach has.
Just one of the advertising
promo pages reads:
"Palm Coast is a Family Kind of Place"
PALM COAST Offers you
A Better place, a better life, a better way.
An excellent long term investment with promising potential for the future.
An excellent location for a second home. A place for vacations, long weekends, or year round living…a place to retire to, far from big city noise, smog and high taxes-yet only hours away by jet.
Palm Coast is a place where the sun came one summer and decided to stay all year. You will always enjoy the weather at Palm Coast…we like to say we have three seasons…Spring, Summer, and an early Fall, all Winter.
We will offer waterfront lots and inland lots. A beautiful rolling golf course and tennis courts are scheduled for completion by 1971. A Marina and modern Golf Club House are scheduled for completion in 1972. Palm Coast will offer you all you’d want for an active well-rounded life.
You don’t have to build immedicately. You can buy a lot now and build later. Many perople will hold their properties for five, ten, or fifteen years before building , selling, or trading.
Palm Coast will be the kind of place you’d want for you and your family…a fun in the sum community…a place where the gold is in the winter sun.
AD 2241
‘The Company’ offered official ‘Guided Tours’ , even by a London Double Decker Bus, and Jitneys ( you can see one at the Ag. Museum ) , of all the improvement and amenities that The Company was offering prospective buyers. There were Sales using any and all sorts of media; massive mailing using the Federal U.S. Postal System, there were even sales offices in Europe and even in Venezuela I think.
Because of the wonderful and marvelous offerings, at that time, we bought two "Standard/Generic" lots and one Premium Golf Course Lot/Home package. The Prices for the Premium Lots were hundreds and even thousands above the cost of DOUBLE the ‘Standard/Generic’ Lot. We had almost bought another Mantanzas Woods Golf Course non Standard Lot but that was very expensive and then shorthly, the Arab Oil Embargo started.
It was reported that in about just two years, 36,000 Lots were sold because of the Improvements and Amenities Palm Coast was offering. Miles of Canal, Miles of Beach, FOUR Professinal Golf Courses, with density of only ‘…density of 2.5 per acrea…less than that of Beverly Hills…’, with Firm but Fair Covenants and Restrictions, Firm but Fair ‘Setbacks’ a two story height preferred, firm but fair S.E.H.O’s ( Special Exemptions for Home Occupations) – a Residential Community with designated and recorded single Family and designated and recorded Multiple Family – almost a "Utopia’ as it was referred to when a Merv Griffin Show about Palm Coast, etc. was broadcase in the Summer of 1974.
As you can readily see from above that Palm Coast was not presented as a Retirement Community.
We hope you enjoy this info and *slice’ of early History of Palm Coast; and in June of 2009 – Lordy Lordy, Palm Coast Turns 40!
George Edward Chuddy
chuddy at bestnetpc dot com