On Thursday, the City of Brentwood issued a response after citizens in the Deer Ridge Neighborhood complained about dirt piles on the private pathway entrances to block the public from the property.
Residents took to social media complaining about the eye sore after earlier this week orange barricades along cart paths were removed on the property owned by Suncoast Properties who shuttered the Golf Course in Sept. of 2019. This has also prompted the city to work on a possible $50 a year tax for some Deer Ridge residents for landscape improvements to keep up landscaping on property owned by Suncaost.
Here is the statement:
Due to ongoing issues of concern to residents at the Deer Ridge Golf Course, please accept this brief update.
City staff is working directly with the property owners to remedy municipal code violations on the property, including the dirt piles on the private pathway entrances closed to the public. Respecting due process, appeals have been filed on citations, and an appeals hearing will be occurring next month. Additional citations will be levied for all municipal code violations.
Further, the property owner has expressed their concerns about public safety, trespassing, vandalism, and ultimate legal liability that need to be respected and addressed. The property is private property, and is closed to all public access.
The City will be sending out notices to the Deer Ridge community regarding a virtual townhall to be held next month to discuss these issues, including questions about the proposed lighting and landscaping proposal recently considered by the City Council, and more information will be forthcoming next week.
City Manager Tim Ogden said Thursday they have issued approximately 30 citations on the property to date and issued the update to residents after social media postings and receiving a dozen emails and calls from concerned residents.
Ogden explained that the owners shared their perspective, that there is trespassing and vandalism on the property.
“I drove by this morning and observed no less than four different individuals walking on the private, closed property,” said Ogden. “Police responds when called, and we’ll enhance our response with a formal letter on file we’re working on obtaining from the owners.”
Ogden also highlighted this is not an business vs. residents vs city issue, but called it a challenging situation where feedback from the community is needed to see about solving a piece of the puzzle and return to the council in January for more direction.
Meanwhile, City Councilwoman Karen Rarey said in a social media postings said Code Enforcement, stormwater permit, grading permit, and the ECCFPD Fire Marshall are all assessing violations, fire hazards, etc., and will appropriately cite for violations for the mounds of dirt and other code violations. She also reiterated that a lien has been placed on the property for over $27k in fines and another $30k in ongoing fines for violations.
Rarey also stated the golf course owner has filed appeals on the latter citations and attorneys are involved. The appeal hearing scheduled for this week was recently pushed out to early November due to schedule conflicts.
2 comments
Going forward, will cities learn from these debacles that inter-neighborhood golf courses tied to houring development is not a deal that should be made? What a mess to have unusable space running through a neighborhood that turns to blight. Planners were living in fantasy land that this is sustainable, especially in a dry over populated state where water resources will continue to be constrained & become more costly. Golf was a fad when they built this, and the fad came & went. Now it is junk land.
Golf is still alive and well, the problem comes when you bet on two sub divisions to provide enough golfers for 36 holes. The courses should have been open to the public as well.
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