Star Tribune Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:02:10 GMT
Golf courses make good neighbors, until the owners want to sell
Course owners in Andover and elsewhere who want to redevelop their land for profit are finding bitter neighborhood opposition. They also are finding that, sometimes, their property rights end at the city hall's door. ... Nationwide, rising land values and diminished demand are an incentive for golf course owners to sell out. Last year, U.S. golf course closures outpaced openings, according to the National Golf Foundation. The same was true in 2006. But many golf courses are zoned as open space; thus cities can prevent development of the property. That's sparking battles between course owners and cities around the metro area. It's happened in Eden Prairie, where a course owner had planned to sell his struggling course to a housing developer for as much as $18 million; in Plymouth, where the city recently removed two courses from restrictive zoning but kept another in it; and in Eagan, where the city denied an owner's request to rezone. That last case is still in court. In each city, neighbors and residents have leaned on public officials to maintain the space they've counted on for their views, their recreation and their property values. ... Left unanswered in that case was a question of whether a city's decision to deny a request might trigger a claim for "inverse condemnation," or "taking of the property," said Tom Grundhoefer, chief legal counsel for the League of Minnesota Cities.
[[keywords: LandUse;Metro;]]
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