Stick to townhome plan for Binks golf course

Nearly two years of protracted negotiations led to a consensus about redevelopment of the Binks Forest Golf Course. Wellington officials and Binks Forest residents do not have to let that hard-fought resolution unravel simply because Peninsula Bank has terminated its contract with developer Frank Leo.

It's been nine months since the village council approved a land-use change allowing Mr. Leo to build 90 townhomes on the course's driving range. More than three-fourths of the Binks Forest homeowners whom the village surveyed supported the $19 million plan to buy the course and renovate it and the clubhouse before the townhomes could be occupied. But the Sarasota-based bank, which has owned the course since foreclosing on it in 2002, alerted the village last month that it had ended its contract with Mr. Leo. Peninsula's executive vice president has said the bank plans to continue the renovation.

Opportunistic opponents, who represent a minority of Binks Forest's nearly 600 homeowners, may view the contract change as a last-ditch chance to overturn the townhome development. The good news is that the bank -- or a new buyer -- won't have to repeat the long process of seeking a land-use change, which precedes a series of zoning and site-plan hearings. "The approvals," Village Manager Charlie Lynn said, "go with the land, not with the owner. This doesn't mean that it's changed and you can go out and build condos now."

Nor should Peninsula use the cover of ongoing negotiations to continue to ignore code violations. After Binks' bankruptcy, the village maintained the property. But it's not the village's responsibility to maintain private property. In the three years since the course has been lying fallow, the bank has amassed more than $54,000 in fines for boarded-up windows on the clubhouse. The fines had no bite; bank officials expected that the clubhouse would be torn down, and the village did not press the bank to pay.

Nothing about Binks' on-again, off-again restoration has come quickly. But this latest phase can unfold more smoothly. By correcting the code problems and submitting a plan to preserve the golf course and build only the pre-approved number of townhomes, the bank won't annoy skeptical homeowners. The fewer the needless delays, the quicker the progress toward restored property values.