Unless you’re a resident, a guest or a vendor, anyone thinking about trying to get into the Plantation Palms community off Collier Parkway should think again.
The community is on lockdown, even during the day. And it’s all because the golf course has shut down … again.
(File Photo)
Nine months after closing for a week, Plantation Palms Golf Club has shuttered its links once again, and this time there’s no telling when it might reopen.
That’s forced the homeowners association at Plantation Palms to act swiftly to protect not only its residents, but the private golf course as well.
“While not our property and not our legal responsibility, (the golf course) is a critical component of our neighborhood,” the board, led by president David Gunsteens, said in a written statement to The Laker/Lutz News. “Many of our residents purchased their homes here because of the excellent golf course. Not only that, but one of the benefits all of us enjoy in living in a golf course community, whether golf enthusiasts or not, is the strength in property value.
“So when the golf course is impacted negatively, it has a detrimental effect on all of us.”
The golf course is not maintained by the HOA, but instead by a private group, MJS Golf Club LLC, which has struggled to keep the 156-acre course open. Golf swings stopped for a week last August in what one of the owners, Jason Ray, described at the time as a perfect storm of bad luck.
“It was just a culmination of a lot of things that led up to the closing, but mostly the economy,” Ray said at the time. “It’s been too hot, and it’s been raining, and the culmination of all that just resulted in not a lot of people playing golf. Summertime is always tough for all the golf courses.”
But it’s not summertime now, and what happened this time, no one is sharing. Ray, who is part of MJS Golf Club with Mitch Osceola and Steve McDonald, did not return calls on Monday before The Laker/Lutz News went to press.
One thing is for certain: Bills were racking up for the golf course. Several liens against Plantation Palms have been filed in recent months, according to county records, including a $2,915 claim from Omega Field Enterprises for trimming 83 palm trees.
Pasco County filed two liens of its own last month totaling $5,300 for solid waste disposal, and Lake Masters Aquatic Weed Control won a judgment against the golf course last January for more than $9,000.
MJS Golf did have some good news last week, however. A proposed $13,000 penalty issued against it by the Southwest Florida Water Management District last September was reduced to $2,000. The agency, more commonly known as Swiftmud, had originally claimed the company overpumped water in 2012. However, officials later determined that there was a leak in the reclaimed water system, and MJS simply failed to notify Swiftmud it had to switch to the potable water system.
Ray, Osceola and McDonald purchased the golf course at 23253 Plantation Palms Blvd., in May 2011 through a $2.18 million mortgage from Native American Bank of Denver. The three have Native American roots, according to a 2012 story published in Indian Country Today. The trio was one of the first non-tribal groups to get a guaranteed loan from a company who specifically serves Native Americans.
The 875-home community’s HOA is not only keeping outsiders away, but also is working to make sure its residents know they can’t use the golf course.
“It is important that we continue to respect the golf course as a private property,” the board said in a statement. “None of us have the right to free golf or to use the course as an additional to our backyards. We encourage all homeowners to pull together during this time, and do whatever we can to promote and protect the integrity of the golf course property.”
Published May 7, 2014
