Montgomery Village Golf Course Strategy

At the 2014 Montgomery Village Foundation (MVF) Board of Directors Candidates Forum on January 22, I was asked a good question by Larry of Park Place II. Larry’s question was put in the form of a challenge to my assertion that Kettler had made the promise that the golf course would remain a golf course. Larry wanted to know what were my ideas to keep it a golf course.

I suggested that MVF General Counsel should be given the assignment to frame the Kettler commitment to keep the golf course a golf course into a strategy. Pressed to explain what else could be done, my response was that we needed to come up with a Plan B, one that puts the onus on the developer. 

Just what would a Plan B look like?

1. The developer should publicly acknowledge the Kettler commitment to retain the golf course.
2. The developer should commit to formulating a pricing strategy for the homes it plans to sell that would keep the golf course a golf course for the next ten years until 2025 and to renovate the club house.
3. The developer would partner with MVF in producing a Terms of Reference document for the project to include vision, purpose, goals, objectives, commitments, responsibilities, and actions for the administration and operation of the golf course among the developer, the golf course community HOA, and the MVF.
4. Pending a productive and harmonious outcome, the Terms of Reference document would be the foundation of a Memorandum of Understanding among the developer, the golf course HOA, and MVF.

In this way, Plan B would shift the discussion from the developer’s interests to those of Village residents.

I would like to thank Larry for pressing this issue, asking the hard question, and prompting the formulation of Plan B.

Don O’Neill

2014 MVF BOD Candidate