Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Editorial: The highest and best use for Countryside
For now, Countryside should remain a golf course, but Roanoke council shouldn't give up on the idea of some day turning it into a new neighborhood.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
When the city of Roanoke purchased Countryside Golf Club in 2005, the housing market was still booming. It made sense to enter into a one-year lease with Meadowbrook to manage the course while the city scouted for a developer.
With a proposal under consideration in 2006, it made sense to extend the lease a year. And it made sense last year to extend the lease yet another year while city council decided what to do with the 140-acre course in a cooling residential market.
With $472,000 annual debt payments, major repairs needed to the cart paths and irrigation system and just $17,500 in lease payments from a management firm, council can't afford more year-to-year uncertainty.
On that point, all agree. The more difficult decision is what to do now: Make it a permanent municipal golf course, continue looking for a housing developer or leave it alone for five years in hopes the real estate market will rebound.
Looking for a developer in the current housing climate is the least likely option. So, it comes down to a golf course in perpetuity or temporarily.
The temporary option makes more sense. It would leave Countryside's neighbors nervous about the future, but would allow the city to negotiate a longer management contract with more favorable terms. It would leave open the option to create a new neighborhood some day -- an important consideration that council can't lose sight of.
Countryside was purchased because the city lacks developable land and most of its houses were built before 1970. To attract new residents, new housing must be part of the mix.
Council spent several hours Monday talking about Countryside, but before that members met jointly with the school board. They discussed possible housing incentives the city might offer both to attract teachers and keep school employees living within the city.
They agreed to continue brainstorming, as having city and school employees living where they work is important. When council returned from the school meeting to talk about Countryside, Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend reminded them incentives can go only so far if there isn't a product to offer.
And that brings the discussion right back to why the city spent $4.1 million to buy Countryside: to develop it into a mixed-use, desirable neighborhood that would attract new residents and boost both the city's population and assessed value.
If council now decides that Countryside is best left as a golf course -- and that taxpayers can afford it -- then council needs to figure out where housing development could occur when the time is right.
