At their monthly meeting Monday, May 18, the Walden Lake Community Association voted on two key issues regarding the two 18-hole golf courses in the residential community.
In a close 5-4 vote, the association voted to enter a lawsuit with Walden Lake Community Preservation against Visions Golf Inc., the company that owns both of the golf courses in the community. The WLCP has hired lawyers to argue that, from the standpoint of covenants and deed restrictions, the golf course must remain as such until 2018 and not undergo development.
Visions Golf has plans for constructing more than 300 homes on the site of The Hills course, if they are able to get rezoning passed through the city.
Bob Hunter, president of the Walden Lake Community Association Board of Directors, was among the five board members who voted to join the lawsuit.
“This board, for the first time ,took a positive, aggressive action toward representing this community, to protect our way of living against a negative effort that would destroy our quality of life in Walden Lake,” Hunter said.
The board also voted to oppose the rezoning that was proposed by Visions Golf Inc.
“The WLCA voted to oppose the rezoning by hiring our own land use attorney and experts to say why that is destroying our community and quality of life,” Hunter said.
The rezoning application is currently pending, and the company has land use lawyers representing them. The application, which was previously incomplete, is expected to be submitted in June.
WALDEN LAKE PARK
Board members also voted on smaller issues regarding Walden Lake Park.
The park has recently undergone numerous renovations, including a newly rebuilt pier, stage area and gazebo. The parking lot of the park was closed this past week so that a handicapped parking spot could be installed, in addition to restriping and repaving the parking lot. About $180,000 worth of renovations were done to the park, and the WLCA discussed a possible ribbon cutting for August.
Soon, the park will also be host to approximately 200 potato vine beetles. The insects, which look very similar to ladybugs, are being released in the area to eliminate the invasive potato vine. The vine has killed other vegetation growing in the area, and previous efforts to remove it have not worked. The beetles eat only potato vines, and it is expected that the beetle population will decrease with the decrease in vines.
IN OTHER NEWS
The Board of Directors voted to obtain a permit for varmint hunting after noticing a significant number of buzzards within the community. It is expected that the varmint litigation will take only one day, and the action will be overseen by the police department if the permit is approved.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.