A resolute group of homeowners in the Lanier Golf Club community say no matter what the Forsyth County Commission decides, they’re not quitting their four-year fight to keep the 172-acre property from being rezoned for residential development.
“I moved here eight or nine years ago to live on the golf course and if the commission doesn't want to fight it in court, we will,” said homeowner Jim Quinn.
Quinn is one of a group of residents who have offered to pay $5,000 of the county’s legal fees if it appeals a judge’s ruling last month giving the commission a deadline to rezone the property.
“But they turned us down,” said Quinn.
After the May 12 ruling that Forsyth County had 45 days to “rezone the property to a constitutional zoning classification,” the commission said it will bring up rezoning proposals at two public hearings before casting its deciding vote June 16.
According to the proposed rezoning, the front tract of the property, all now zoned agricultural, will be a master planned district (MPD). The back tract of the property will be zoned R-3, for single family residential. District 5 Commissioner Jim Boff, who lives in the community but not on the course, said he has always been in favor of keeping the golf course.
“The people who bought homes here paid a premium and have paid higher taxes all these years to keep it that way,” said Boff.
The course has been tied up in litigation since 2007, when the course owners sued the county after the commission rejected their request to rezone it so they could sell the land to a developer. The sale was contingent on the rezoning.
Course owners Jack Manton and George Bagley Jr. have offered a conceptual plan for the development. But after four years of legal haggling and the crash of the real estate market, county attorney Ken Jarrard said at the moment there is no “bona fide purchaser” of the property if it is rezoned.
At a commission work session District 4 Commissioner Patrick Bell said the higher density development was better for the county.
"You couldn't ask for a better use of land -- low impact, low trip generation and high taxes," said Bell.
Quinn said residents of the community have already spent about $150,000 in legal fees fighting the rezoning. One reasons the county commission wants to settle the litigation is the cost, said Boff, who estimates Forsyth has spent about $120,000 fighting the rezoning so far.
District 3 Commissioner Todd Levent said the commission rejected the offer to pay part of the legal expenses because the community group did not want to pay all the expenses if the case goes to trial, which could cost $15,000 or more. That strategy will backfire, said Quinn.
“If the county does vote to have this ridiculous zoning, the neighborhood will sue and therefore they will not be saving anything in legal expenses,” he said.
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