Crowfield Deed Restriction Gets Test Vote Tuesday

Update:

Original Report: Goose Creek City Council will give a test vote to proposed deed restrictions at the city-owned Crowfield Golf and Country Club, a proposal by Mayor Mike Heitzler that has been a hard sell for most of the council members.

Worried about the future viability of the course, , preventing future city councils from dividing up the land for the next 25 years.

"Some future council may want to sell off a little bit here and a little bit there," Heitzler said.

A vote by council last year has the Crowfield course at the city's most restrictive zoning: conservation. Except for Councilman John McCants, Heitzler can't find any solid support for the proposal to add another barrier to development.

In a third workshop on the topic last week, city attorney Tim Domin tried to assure council members that he could draft a deed restriction that would hold up to a challenge from any future council looking to do something different with the golf course.

Councilwoman Marguerite Brown has made it clear she is against any restrictions limiting future city council members.

"I don't think I have the right to say that council has no right to determine what to do with that land," Brown said.

Resident Reggie Ryan lives on the 5th hole fairway. He told council members that he wants to see the property preserved.

"We want to make sure that it cannot be sold to a developer," he said. "The golf course property is very prime dirt. There's a lot of money to be made there."

Councilmen Jerry Tekac and Mark Phillips have argued the deed restriction doesn't protect the golf course and, ultimately, doesn't actually protect the property from development.

"You think if we don't subdivide it nothing will happen?" Phillips said. "The property could be sold to someone and developed as a single tract of land. I don't think it's a stretch at all."

For a title change to truly be restrictive, the deed has to change hands or the authority over the development of the land would have to be handed over to a trust or another third party.

Domin told council he wasn't aware of any other municipalities that had put deed restrictions on public property.

"We're cutting edge," said councilman Kimo Esarey, sarcastically.

The council will also consider the first reading of that critics have compared to outlawed video poker machines.