County Commissioners tighten maintenance requirements for "inactive" golf courses.CV specifically mentioned

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County Commissioners tighten maintenance requirements for "inactive" golf courses. CV specifically mentioned (my highlight). From The Post, Sunday, August 26th.

Defunct golf courses told to keep their grass mowed
County tightens rules as abandoned courses revert to ‘safari’ growth.
The Palm Beach Post 26 Aug 2018 By Alexandra Seltzer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

"County commissioners last week approved stronger rules that require owners of abandoned or inactive golf courses in suburban Palm Beach County to maintain the properties. Owners now need to contain the weeds and mow the grass to seven inches on the first 25 feet from the property line and to 18 inches on the remainder of the land.

“We wanted to adjust our code to make it more stringent so neighbors don’t have to look at all this massive overgrowth,” said Ramsay Bulkeley, the county’s deputy director of planning, zoning and building.

The county has a database called the Zoning Division Golf Course Conversion Log, which lists about 15 golf courses that are in a variety of stages of redevelopment. As the trend of golf courses losing financial stability continues, developers are tapping the courses for development — finding massive tracts of land that are hard to locate elsewhere.

The new rules apply to golf courses that are abandoned or inactive and haven’t started construction.

While the new rules are “better than nothing,” (County Commissioner Steve)Abrams said, golf course owners could still choose to ignore them and pay a code enforcement fine. Abrams said it isn’t a “cure-all.”

Abrams said residents have also complained about the lack of maintenance at the former golf course land near Century Village west of West Palm Beach. 

The new rules also say waste accumulations, yard trash, debris, Brazilian pepper or uncultivated vegetation that could be a fire hazard have to be removed.


“They finally did something,” (Rosemary) Nixon said Tuesday after hearing of the new rules. “I guess that’s an improvement. People were concerned about animals, rats, all kinds of stuff, snakes. And they were also concerned about the possible dangers of fire with tall grass.”

The new rules also say waste accumulations, yard trash, debris, Brazilian pepper or uncultivated vegetation that could be a fire hazard have to be removed.