Flat Rock agrees to pay $1.15 million for golf course

(Sorry I'm so late with this, but we've been out of town.) From the Times-News of May 1:

FLAT ROCK — A month and a half after deciding to build a municipal park, village councilmen agreed Monday to pay the owners of Highland Lake Golf Course $1.15 million for the 66-acre property, beginning with a $525,000 payment at closing on June 30.

Council voted unanimously to enter into a purchase agreement with Course Doctors Inc. to purchase all property and buildings on the golf course except for practice range lights and a “pole barn,” which the current owners must remove at their expense.

Course Doctors owners Jim Sparks and Tom Davis had the golf course on the market for $1.3 million, but Henderson County optioned the property in 2011 for $1.1 million before abandoning plans for its own park and soccer complex there after citizens objected....

[Flat Rock Mayor Bob Staton] said the village plans to establish an advisory committee with the goal of preparing a master plan for the property and “determining what the phases of development might be, along with estimated costs for budgeting purposes.”

Protecting open space at the village's gateway was cited by councilmen as a key reason for purchasing the golf course. Though two-thirds of the land is within a floodplain, Staton said Course Doctors could have built up to 44 multi-family condos or townhouses on the land closest to Greenville Highway....

Read it all.