Residents rally to oppose potential golf course development

A standing-room-only crowd of Pike Creek residents packed an Aug. 18 meeting to hear some answers regarding the uncertain future of the Pike Creek Golf Course, which closed suddenly on July 26.

State Rep. Joe Miro (R-Pike Creek) called the meeting at Linden Hill Elementary School to quell rumors about what is planned for the 174-acre course, owned by The Onix Group, a Kennett Square, Pa., developer.

Onix has not yet filed a plan, but the group’s attorney, Richard P. Beck of Morris James, sent Miro a letter saying Onix believes the course can be developed without a rezoning and is drawing up plans.

Those plans ought to be ready in early September, Beck wrote, and Onix will arrange a meeting after Labor Day to present them to the public.

New Castle County, however, says development is prohibited because of deed restrictions that require the entire golf course to remain open space, said Stephanie Rizzo, aide to New Castle

County Councilman Tim Sheldon (D-Pike Creek). And the county is prepared to make that case in court if Onix files a subdivision plan, she said.

Miro is hoping to mobilize residents to oppose any development.

“If this land is developed, the existence of every single development in this area will not be the same,” he said.

But a development plan – and potential legal battle – could still be months away, leaving many residents wondering how the course will be maintained down the road.

If the property is left as open space, New Castle County requires the grass be kept no higher than eight inches along a 20-foot-deep perimeter of the property, Rizzo explained. The grass inside the perimeter must be cut once a year, she said.

While Beck’s letter does not state any specifics about how the course will be maintained, he wrote that Onix “does not intend for the golf course to become trashy or unkempt.”

Residents are skeptical.

The Save Pike Creek Committee, which mobilized 30 years ago to prevent development of the course, has been reactivated and is waiting in the wings to prepare a legal defense fund, said Jeff Peters, president of the Pike Creek Valley Civic League. In the early 1980s, several hundred residents chipped in $25 each to pay a lawyer, Miro said, and that kind of grassroots fundraising could be used again.

Preserving the open space is paramount, Miro said, but there is little anyone can do to prevent the development of 20 townhomes Onix plans to build near the course on Hogan Drive.

That development, originally filed in the 1980s, never expired because it is a minor plan and will be allowed to go through, Rizzo said, but Onix would be required to develop the homes to modern standards.

New homes are the biggest concern of Bart Shanahan, who moved into Fairway Falls a few months ago. The golf course played a big role in his decision to move there, he said, and replacing it with houses, or at the very least unkempt grass, would be a terrible loss.

“That open space really is essential to create a buffer,” he said. “It is a part of what makes the community what it is.”

Everyone would have liked the area to remain a golf course, but if that’s not possible, the land must remain open space, said Charles Johnson, president of the Linden Heath Civic Association. He’s skeptical Onix can pull off a residential development with so many people opposed to any plan, he said.

“We would settle for open space, but we’d prefer to have something accessible for the community,” he said.

Representatives from The Onix Group were not immediately available for comment.