Park’s on New Course

By TAFT WIREBACK

GREENSBORO — A proposed golf-course community will not be built next to Haw River State Park now that North Carolina officials have sealed a $14 million deal to buy the site from a Florida development firm.

Instead, the land will be added to the four-year-old park in northern Guilford and southern Rockingham counties, more than tripling the existing park’s size.

Bluegreen Corp. formally withdrew its request Thursday to rezone the 692-acre tract, where it once planned to build an upscale community of 775 dwellings around a 182-acre golf course.

“In light of the considerable controversy surrounding this project, our company believes that this result is in the best interest of the community,” Bluegreen vice president Tom Powers said.

The price tag on the property was “slightly above the appraised value” of the land, state park officials said in a press release.

“The state property office determined that an offer above the appraised value is proper due to the high conservation and natural resource value of the property,” they said.

Powers withdrew the golf-course proposal in a letter to Kirk Perkins, chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. The letter also was signed by Greensboro lawyer Henry Isaacson, who represented Bluegreen in its rezoning request.

The commissioners were scheduled next week to hear an appeal of an earlier ruling — by Guilford’s planning board — rezoning the land to allow the proposed Patriot’s Landing golf and housing project.

Perkins said it was unlikely Bluegreen would have won the upcoming showdown because of the park’s potential, the river system’s fragile ecology and intense public interest in the park’s growth and success.

“We don’t have an opportunity for a state park to be developed in our county every day,” Perkins said.

The park is in his district, and Perkins said opposition to Patriot’s Landing was overwhelming among his constituents and from park supporters well beyond the Triad.

“I’ve been receiving 10, 20, 30 letters a month and hundreds of e- mails,” he said.

In fact, the proposed development triggered a buzzsaw of organized opposition and an advocacy group, Citizens for Haw River State Park, focused on defeating the golf-course community and expanding the park.

“This is what we have worked so hard for, to give the state park a chance to really get off the ground, so we can create a large and valuable recreation area for generations to come,” said David Craft, a leader in the group.

Bluegreen deserves praise for its willingness to back off its potentially lucrative development, said Bill Ross, secretary of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“When Bluegreen officials became aware that the state parks system had a sincere interest in this property and the means to pay fair market value, they were willing to negotiate in good faith,” said Ross, a former Guilford County resident.

In his letter, Powers said the company got a positive signal initially when it suggested Patriot’s Landing to county officials.

“As a result, our company invested a considerable amount of time and money in creating a project that we believe the county and its citizens would have been proud of,” he said.

Bluegreen had a controlling interest in the property because it had options to buy the three separate tracts from Guilford County land owners Thaxton Richardson, Annie B. Cox and former Guilford Commissioner Forrest Campbell.

The agreement between Bluegreen and the state requires the deal to be completed by the end of February.

The state will pay for the land using a special bondlike financing program the General Assembly developed last year, called certificates of participation, which will be repaid over 20 years.

The park is still in its development phase, so it is too early to know exactly how the new land will be used, said Charlie Peek, park system spokesman.

State government is still actively seeking more land for the park and will put together a detailed plan when that process reaches a logical stopping point, Peek said.

Area residents will be invited to participate in the planning effort along with state park officials and, possibly, outside consultants, he said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news- record.com

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