Save Bardmoor and Save the Tides will host a joint Green Space Rally to protect “further loss of what little open space we have left” on April 27. The Tides Golf Club closed July 1, while the owner of Bardmoor Golf & Country Club plans to sell the property if Pinellas County approves rezoning of the land.
Two Seminole, Fla. organizations—Save Bardmoor and Save the Tides—have joined forces to host a Green Space Rally on April 27, Tampa Bay Newspapers (TBN) reported. According to the Facebook event page, the Green Space Rally is a protest against “overdevelopment by out-of-state developers and further loss of what little open space we have left in [Pinellas] county.”
Both groups formed as a response to the potential redevelopment of Seminole-area golf courses for residential use, according to the TBN report. The Tides Golf Club closed July 1.
In a notice to club members, the property’s owners said, “A golf course at this location is not a viable business.” They blamed damage from Hurricane Irma and a decrease in activity for the closure, TBN reported.
Though there is no pending rezoning application, Pinellas County officials held a community town hall meeting in February to discuss the process should one be submitted, according to the TBN report.
Several years ago, developer Taylor Morrison proposed building up to 170 single- and multi-family homes on the Tides property, TBN reported. The project would have required significant rezoning, which Pinellas County staff did not recommend as the proposed development was inconsistent with the county’s comprehensive plan and policies regarding open space.
Meanwhile, the owner of Bardmoor Golf & Country Club plans to sell the property to Wheelock Communities and Gentry Land if the county approves rezoning of the land, according to the TBN report. Representatives at Gentry said a rezoning application will be submitted to the county by May. In recent months, the county has also held public meetings regarding the Bardmoor property.
Jeanice Harring, part of the Save Bardmoor group, told TBN, “The (April 27) rally is part of our growing efforts to organize a countywide movement to preserve green space.”
She added, “The (county’s) current rules favor destroying green space as an ‘easy’ option, because the county ‘gives it away,’ where other jurisdictions charge an appropriate fee for the permanent loss and added costs of dense development.”
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