When golf courses go out of business, they are extremely attractive properties for redevelopment.
A developer has been trying to build new homes on the former Calusa Country Club course in Kendall for years but was thwarted in court. A group of residents argued the plan would wipe out a tree island in the golf course lake, an island that houses several species of birds. Two years ago, the county agreed that the island was a significant bird rookery, with at least one threatened species nesting there.
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WATCH HERE“We have great egrets, anhinga, tri-colored herons, which is the state-threatened species, cattle egrets, I believe those are the only nesting ones but we’ve also seen snail kite and wood stork, a roseate spoonbill, we had white pelicans last year for the first time,” said Amanda Prieto, a neighborhood activist who has led the fight against the housing project.
Now the developer, GL Homes, has submitted a scaled-down plan which it says will actually enhance the rookery.
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“We can’t just keep destroying their habitat, you know, they chose to be here for a reason, this is a very urban area and this is like a peaceful oasis in the middle of urban Kendall where they can nest and thrive,” Prieto said of the birds flocking to the rookery.
The new plan calls for 540 homes instead of 550. The lake would be partially filled in, and homes would be built about a hundred feet away from the rookery. GL Homes says the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has approved its plan, saying they are doing what needs to be done to ensure the survival of the rookery while still building needed housing.
“I don’t think it even meets the bare minimum requirement,” Prieto said, disagreeing with the developer’s assessment. “They’re proposing to reduce the size of the lake, I think the proximity of the new homes is far too close, there’s no restrictions in terms of light or noise, I think this would set up the rookery to fail.”
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I pointed out that we were standing in the backyard of a home which is much closer to the rookery than the new homes would be.
“Yeah, there’s only homes on one side of the rookery right now, this would put homes on all four sides of the rookery,” Prieto responded.
She said her group wishes the homes would be built at least 300 feet away from the tree island. The county will make the final decision on whether or not the project goes forward.
