Mizner Trail principals applied to build luxury town homes on the Mizner Trail Golf Course, and the County voted 4-3 in January 2006 to move forward to the County Commission, but recommended denial, stating that the golf course was a firm and wholistic part of the community. However, the property is properly zoned for building luxury town homes. Mizner’s owners purchased the property in 1998 with the expectation that it would be used temporarily as a golf course, which was never established in perpetuity, and that the property would ultimately be developed residentially. They also claim that it is no longer economically viable to use the property as a golf course, and has not been used as such for several years. The course was closed October 1, 2005. Litigation between Palm Beach County and owners of Mizner Trail Golf Course will soon begin. County Commissioners approved $350,000 for hiring expert witnesses and consultants a few months ago to defend the county in the $38-MM “inverse condemnation” lawsuit (taking of property by a government agency that so greatly damages the use of a parcel of real property that it is the equivalent of condemnation of the entire property) filed last year by Mizner Trail Golf Course principals. Prices of the 202 town homes proposed would start at $500,000. One-third of the golf course would have been used for the town homes and the rest would have been converted into an executive 18-hole course. Included in the new deed would be a covenant preventing the remaining 2/3 percent of the land from ever being developed. This case would set a precedent for the area, where there now is a lack of land to develop, and also of concern to environmentalists.
No comments:
Post a Comment