Audio By Carbonatix
The full Dallas city council just got its first chance to learn a little more about the proposed golf course that the city and AT&T want to build in southern Dallas. There’s still a lot for the city to work out before it agrees to clean up and lease the land to the yet-unformed nonprofit, but we did learn a few things from today’s discussion:
Memberships may cost more than $150,000. “This is going to be a golf course … that’s really out of the reach of just about everyone in the city of Dallas,” councilman Scott Griggs said, throwing out the ballpark figure of $100,000 to $150,000. “Might even be more than that,” City Manager Mary Suhm said.
It’s not in a floodplain. Some folks were worried about that. But the course, Suhm said, is not in a floodplain. Surrounding areas, however, are, which might limit what development can happen. “A lot of people say, ‘You can build houses near the course,'” Suhm said. “Not in a floodplain in the woods.”
Angela Hunt wants answers. She wants answers? She thinks she’s entitled to them. She. Wants. Answers? SHE WANTS THE TRUTH.
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Specifically, the councilwoman wants to know what the economic impact of the Byron Nelson tournament would be. The city says $32 million, but she wants it in detail. She also wants to see some “success models.” Is this like East Lake, the Atlanta course cited by Tod Robberson, or like Harbor Shores, the Michigan course cited by Hunt and Eric Celeste?
“What is it? Mixed use, high-end residential, what are we walking about?” she asked of the development that will be so spurred. “I’m open to it, [but] I have a lot of questions.”
If you’re not on it, you’ll never know the course is there. Councilwoman Linda Koop said it was important that we “have sight lines so that people have a sense of importance … So many of them (golf courses) are closed off that you don’t even know they’re there.”
To which Suhm said: “The west side and south side are in flood plain, in a forest, and by a river.” In other words: Not seeing it is what makes it great.
This is totally not like the horse park. “This is exactly what we heard on the horse park,” councilwoman Sandy Greyson told Suhm, “and what we have wound up with is that we are building the whole thing for two nonprofits. What I do not want to see happen is for you all to come back and say … we are going to build this whole thing.”
“We will not be building a golf course,” Suhm said, rather emphatically. “We don’t need a [city-owned] golf course.”
And so it is written.
