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CASSELBERRY CITY COMMISSION Minutes of August 27, 2012 — Regular Meeting Page 16 of 20 Staff has learned: • First, that the Casselberry Golf Club has not been making money and the owners must infuse additional money to maintain solvency. It is not on a sustainable course and the owners have suggested that they would rather close the course than continue to fund losses. The losing trend affects the golf industry in total as documented in the Orlando Sentinel and other media. There are too many golf courses and too few golfers. • Staff has learned that should the golf course close it could deteriorate into a wide open brush area, and without additional investment would add little natural beauty. Winter Springs Golf Club is an example. • We've learned that the golf course owners would like to sell some measure of developable land to a home builder and convey the remainder to the City to be kept as green space. • We've learned that cities which acquired golf courses in Florida in the last ten years have bought them in order to pursue limited development or to operate them as public courses to be run by contracted managers with the expectation that the operation would make money or break even based on a feasibility study conducted first. • We've learned that profitable golf courses have successful club houses with thriving food, beverage and merchandise sales. Casselberry Golf Club does not have a successful club house. Staff expects to learn without the benefit of a feasibility study that the golf course could not be acquired by the City and run without continued operating deficits. Even a sizable additional investment in renovations would not assure the enterprise would be self sustaining. • We have learned that The Casselberry Golf Club is subject to a Declaration of Restrictions containing a "reverter clause". It was executed on November 23, 1973 and has a fifty-year life expiring in 2023. It is recorded in the Public Records of Seminole County. It states that "During the term of these restrictions ... Owner ... may cease to operate said real property as a golf course at such time as said operation shall become economically unfeasible ... Owner shall convey the real property, free of charge ... unto the City of Casselberry ... and the City of Casselberry shall maintain the ... property as a golf course or greenbelt area." We've learned that the value of real property is based on the development potential. A golf course that has no potential to make money may have no value. Property with the potential to become single family, residential homes may have a lot of value in the millions of dollars. Should the City seek to purchase the land for development, a high price may apply. To raise funds for any kind of golf course purchase it would likely require the approval of a bond referendum by the citizens of Casselberry in an open election. Taxes would have to be increased to pay for the bond issue. Staff recognizes that in order to advance planning it should be done in an open manner with the input of our citizens. Planning should be done based on guiding principles developed to protect the interests of the community, enhance existing property values and maximize the potential for alternative amenities to be paid for by the developer. Successful planning will be better achieved with friendly rather than adversarial development partners.