How Groups Are Settling Golf Course Development Disputes

Settlements in golf course development disputes land across a wide spectrum: some permanently bar housing on the land, some force a city to write a nine-figure check to a developer, and some produce negotiated concessions like buffer zones and density caps without any money changing hands. Which outcome a community gets depends on the deed restrictions already in place, the zoning authority the municipality is willing to use, and how far either side is prepared to push a lawsuit. Recent cases from New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona show how these golf course development dispute settlements actually get written.

Permanent Preservation Without a Purchase

The cleanest outcome for opponents of development is a settlement that bars housing on the land forever and costs the town nothing. That is what the Town of Oyster Bay, New York, achieved on March 24, 2026, when its Town Board unanimously approved a settlement with P.G.C. Holding Corporation, owner of the 50-acre, nine-hole Peninsula Golf Course in East Massapequa. The agreement permanently prohibits residential development on the site and rezones the land from residential to recreational use.¹

The road to that deal was long. In 2021, P.G.C. Holding Corp. reportedly received an offer from Great American Properties, a Florida firm owned by Richard Schaub Jr.² Town officials worried the course would eventually be subdivided into as many as 150 single-family homes. Oyster Bay tried to buy the property outright for $4.4 million, but the deal fell apart because it included a clause that would have paid P.G.C. shareholders an additional $60 million if the land were ever developed later. A unilateral rezoning attempt went nowhere, and in January 2024 the town petitioned Nassau County Supreme Court to seize the property through eminent domain.³

The settlement ended that eminent domain action without the town having to pay for the land. P.G.C. Holding Corp. agreed the property “shall be forever used and maintained as and for golf purposes only, open to the public.” New deed agreements were recorded against the parcel, the town retained a right of first refusal if the course is ever sold, and if the development ban is violated the town can resume its eminent domain case. The club had 60 days to execute the terms.⁴ Supervisor Joseph Saladino said the deal achieved the goal of “permanently protecting this open space from development while saving the millions it would cost to acquire it.”¹

When the Developer Wins and the City Pays

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the former Badlands Golf Course in Las Vegas produced one of the largest municipal settlements of its kind. Developer Yohan Lowie, CEO of EHB Companies, bought the roughly 250-acre property in 2015 to build housing. The course closed in 2016. The city granted land use entitlements but withheld the zoning approvals needed to break ground, and residents in the Queensridge neighborhood fought the project hard. EHB filed four lawsuits arguing the city had effectively taken its property, and the courts sided with Lowie on multiple occasions.⁵

In late 2024, the Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously to settle the three remaining lawsuits. The total cost ran to $636 million. The city bought the property from EHB and resold it to national homebuilder Lennar Corporation for $350 million, leaving a net payout to EHB of $286 million. The council opted to settle rather than face a judgment the city estimated at $405 million to $450 million.⁶ Lennar is now building the site as “The Preserve,” with plans for 1,480 residential units including single-family homes, townhouses, and condos, and the first homes expected by 2028.⁵

Concessions Instead of a Blockade

Many settlements fall between those extremes. In Wilmington, North Carolina, the Echo Farms Residents Association sued in federal court to stop a redevelopment proposed by Matrix Development Group, which planned nearly 500 dwellings on the former Echo Farms Golf and Country Club, including single-family homes, an apartment complex, and 31 townhouses.⁷

The residents lost their strongest argument when Chief U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III ruled that the property’s restrictive covenants were personal obligations that did not “run with the land” and so could not be enforced against Matrix’s subsidiary, Echo Farms LLC.⁸ With no path to blocking the project outright, they negotiated. The September 2017 consent judgment increased buffers between the new development and existing neighborhoods, modified the site design, capped the tract closest to Carolina Beach Road at no more than 50 single-family homes, and kept the country club pool open through summer 2018. No money changed hands. The course closed on October 15, 2017.⁹ The opposition group eventually worked with a successor builder, GHK Cape Fear Development, on density that matched the surrounding area, and in 2018 the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County bought 14 acres of the former club, including the tennis courts and pool, for public use.¹⁰

Time-Limited Deed Restrictions

Some settlements split the difference by locking in preservation for a defined period while giving the owner future flexibility. In Henderson, Nevada, the Legacy Golf Club owners (Par Excellence Drive Trust, LLC) and two homeowners associations (Grand Legacy Community Association and Green Valley Association) reached a deal in March 2018, one day into a trial before Judge Joe Hardy Jr. The agreement imposed a stronger deed restriction requiring the land to remain an operational 18-hole golf course through December 30, 2038. In exchange, the owners kept the right to pursue development on the eastern portion of the property near Green Valley and Wigwam parkways, potentially including a hotel, convention space, and retail, subject to City of Henderson approval.¹¹ The neighborhoods bought two decades of guaranteed open space; the owners got a defined timeline.

When a Court Decides Instead

Not every case settles. In Phoenix, the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course dispute produced a court order rather than a deal, and the ruling is a useful marker for what deed restrictions can force. The True Life Companies (TTLC) bought the course planning to build an “agrihood.” By the time residents Linda W. Swain and Eileen T. Breslin sued, citing a 1992 document requiring operation of a golf course for the benefit of surrounding homeowners, the course had been closed since 2013 and the clubhouse had burned down in February 2016.¹²

A superior court judge ruled in July 2016 that the property had to remain a golf course. The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld that order in September 2019 and required TTLC to restore the course. The appellate court found that TTLC had bought the land with the “sole intent to redevelop it into a lucrative residential development” and had let it deteriorate in the meantime. The CC&Rs were treated as a binding contract, and the developer failed to show a material change in the neighborhood that would justify modifying them.¹³

Other Disputes Still in Motion

Several cases show how messy the middle of the process can be:

At Calusa Country Club in Miami-Dade County, the commission lifted a 99-year restrictive covenant on the 168-acre former course in 2020 after roughly 84% of “ring homeowners” signed waivers, clearing the way for a GL Homes proposal of 550 residences. In 2022, the Third District Court of Appeal quashed the zoning resolution because the county had not provided mandatory public notice for a rescheduled hearing. GL Homes later submitted a revised application for 540 homes.¹⁴¹⁵
At the former Masonboro Golf Club in Wilmington, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in 2022 that the homeowners association had no perpetual right to keep the property as open space, but it also reversed a trial court decision granting developer Southern Destiny, LLC access to the subdivision’s private roads, sending the easement question back for further proceedings.¹⁶
At The Links Golf Course in Collier County, Florida, owners proposed 369 homes, were rejected, and filed two lawsuits in 2023. A settlement scheduled for a December 2024 commission vote would have required the county to pay $250,000 in legal fees in exchange for the suits being dropped and development moving forward.¹⁷

The Legal Theories That Shape Outcomes

The same tools surface again and again. Zoning challenges remain the primary obstacle for developers, since rezoning is a legislative and discretionary act, which gives municipalities broad latitude to say no. Restrictive covenants, whether written into a deed or implied from marketing materials, plat maps, and subdivision branding, are the next layer. The Eleventh Circuit’s 2014 decision in Heatherwood Holdings LLC v. HGC Inc. held that an implied covenant can bind even without an express restriction in the deed.¹⁸ Procedural attacks on public notice requirements, like the one that unwound the Calusa approval, round out the main playbook.

Developers who cannot win outright negotiate concessions: larger buffers, density caps, financial contributions to homeowners associations, phased timelines. Political lobbying matters, too, because rezoning votes are discretionary decisions by elected officials who answer to organized neighborhood groups.

Why the Fights Keep Coming

The pattern is driven by economics. More than 2,000 courses were removed from the U.S. supply after the late-2000s housing bubble and the 2008 financial crisis. According to the National Golf Foundation, annual closures have declined for five consecutive years and reached their lowest level since 2004 as of late 2025. At the end of 2024, 15,962 courses remained in operation, and the industry recorded net gains in new facilities and new courses for the first time since 2022.¹⁹

At the same time, course valuations have jumped. The average sale price in 2024 was roughly $6.9 million, 38% higher than the previous year and more than double the 2019 level.¹⁹ Higher land values in supply-constrained coastal markets make redevelopment attractive to developers and keep settlement stakes rising. Research on eight redeveloped golf course communities in South Florida found that once home construction begins on a former course, adjacent existing homes appreciated 27% more than the metropolitan-area average, while homes next to a closed or for-sale course that had not yet been redeveloped lagged the market by 18%.²⁰ That dynamic helps explain why some homeowners stop fighting and start negotiating: a well-planned redevelopment can outperform a deteriorating course next door.

Whether a community ends up with permanent preservation, a negotiated buffer zone, or a $286 million municipal bill depends on the legal tools available, the strength of the deed restrictions on record, and how much political and financial capital local officials are willing to spend. There is no single template, but the value of the land underneath the fairways is pushing the stakes higher for everyone at the table.

1
Long Island Press. Oyster Bay Settlement Preserves Peninsula Golf Course, Blocks Development
2
Golf on Long Island. Florida Buyer Would Preserve, Upgrade Peninsula GC Upon Sale
3
Town of Oyster Bay. Town Advances Plans to Acquire and Preserve Peninsula Golf Course
4
Massapequa Post. TOBAY Board Settles Peninsula Golf Course Dispute
5
Las Vegas Review-Journal. Former Badlands Owner Buying Las Vegas Land Again After Big Settlement With City
6
City of Las Vegas. Badlands Settlement Payment Structure
7
StarNews Online. Echo Farms Lawsuit Settled
8
WilmingtonBiz. Echo Farms Lawsuit Settled
9
StarNews Online. Top Stories of 2017 No. 3: Echo Farms Golf Course Closes
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WilmingtonBiz. Latest Echo Farms Development Includes Single-Family Homes, Townhomes
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Las Vegas Review-Journal. Henderson Golf Course Owners Reach Settlement With Homeowners
12
ABC15. Judge: Closed Ahwatukee Golf Course Must Remain a Golf Course
13
Fox 10 Phoenix. Court of Appeals Rules Ahwatukee Golf Course Must Be Restored
14
Miami Herald. Calusa Country Club Development
15
FindLaw. Save Calusa, Inc. v. Miami-Dade County
16
WilmingtonBiz. In Contested Golf Course Redevelopment, Court Rules HOA Isn’t Guaranteed Open Space
17
Gulf Coast News Now. Collier Golf Course Lawsuits, Housing Development
18
Collier Community Foundation. The Promise and Peril of Golf Course Redevelopment
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First Call Golf. Golf Course Realty Fundamentals Remain Strong in 2025
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JBREC. Golf Course Redevelopment