TAMPA — A golf course owner wanted a new tee time for cleaning contaminants from the Pebble Creek Golf Course. Hillsborough commissioners balked at the delay request Wednesday and said the 150 acres in New Tampa will not be called a brownfield.
The unanimous vote followed a 30-minute public hearing in which 10 speakers objected to the brownfield designation sought by Ace Golf Inc. County staff also recommended denying the application because it meant a net loss of 30 jobs after the course closed.
Ace Golf, owner of the Pebble Creek Golf Course just east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, wanted the brownfield label as a precursor to cleaning contaminants from the land and selling it for residential development.
The designation would have provided a state tax credit to Ace Golf equal to three-quarters of the cleanup costs, company president Bill Place told the Tampa Bay Times. No final cost estimate has been determined, he said.
“This is corporate greed,” Leslie Green, a 27-year resident of Pebble Creek, told commissioners.
She and other residents said the brownfield label would bring a stigma hurting neighborhood property values. Even Place acknowledged that concern.
“A lot of the residents, perhaps rightfully so, hear the term ‘brownfield’ and there’s quite a stigma there,” said Place.
He asked commissioners to delay their vote so he again could meet with residents to try to resolve the disagreements. He said he would withdraw his application if that was the desire of the homeowners association.
He didn’t get the chance.
“There is no public benefit to this designation, therefore there should be no designation,” said Michael Jacobson, president of the Pebble Creek Homeowners Association.
Only one resident spoke in favor of Place’s proposal. Pamela Jo Hatley noted the course will close regardless of the county’s position and that future residential development would mean the property had been cleaned up properly.
“Frankly, the cat is out of the bag. The public now knows the Pebble Creek golf course has contaminants on it, “ she said.
A cleanup is needed before redevelopment because soil samples showed high levels of arsenic and dieldrin from insecticide applications, particularly on the greens and tee boxes. The South Florida firm 13th Floor Homes plans to redevelop the property into a neighborhood of up to 300 single-family homes.
Commissioner Ken Hagen, whose district includes Pebble Creek, said the environmental application was ill-timed. The property should have been rezoned and in compliance with the county’s land use plan before applying for the brownfield designation. None of the other properties in the county’s brownfield program are within existing residential areas, he said.
Pebble Creek Golf Course opened in 1967. Place said the course, which he has owned and operated since 2005, will not be financially viable beyond next year. Prior to the meeting, he said he would clean up the land even without the financial incentives of the brownfield designation.
December 17, 2020 at 03:00AM
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Hillsborough denies brownfield label for New Tampa golf course - Tampa Bay Times
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