A majority of Seminole County homeowners living near the shuttered Deer Run Country Club showed enthusiastic support for county plans to convert the former golf course into a public park, voting to create a special taxing district to help transform and preserve the area.
About 67% of property owners surrounding the former golf course voted in favor of forming a municipal service benefit unit, or MSBU, which will charge 2,273 homes either $130 or $65 a year — depending on proximity to the new park — for 15 years. A well-organized group of volunteers in the area helped mobilize the effort, called Save Deer Run, securing just over 1,600 petitions, almost 95% in favor of the initiative.
The county needed 65% of all property owners to support the MSBU. About 650 homeowners did not respond.
Seminole County Commissioner Bob Dallari praised the volunteers for helping maintain the neighborhood’s green space, telling residents that their hard work will be something future generations will cherish.
“You’re helping us walk the walk and talk the talk,” Dallari said at the county commission meeting Tuesday. “This isn’t just putting a stake in the ground … we’re putting a stake in the county as Florida’s natural choice.”
Seminole County’s motto is “Florida’s Natural Choice.”
Facing no public opposition Tuesday, commissioners voted to move forward with the county’s acquisition of the former Deer Run Country Club near Casselberry and also the still-open Wekiva Golf Club near Longwood, to save both green spaces from potential development. Commissioners said Tuesday they plan to continue to run the Wekiva Golf Club in the immediate future as a golf course because it continues to be profitable.
County appraisals show it would cost nearly $14.8 million to purchase both properties and an additional $8.1 million to convert the former golf course at Deer Run into a large park, crisscrossed with nature trails and multiple open, grassy spaces, according to a county staff report.
Commission Chair Lee Constantine said the planned acquisitions show the county’s commitment to preserving green space and providing well-maintained public parks, mentioning the county’s 2017 purchase of the closed 100-acre Rolling Hills Golf Club. The county bought that former golf course, which sits between Altamonte Springs and Longwood, for $3.95 million and is working on transforming itinto a public park.
That process also involved a local special tax district, which property owners supported.
“We are committed to doing the things that our citizens want and that will [keep us] … at the forefront of Florida’s natural choice,” Constantine said.
The Deer Run and Wekiva golf clubs are owned by firms headed by the late Bob Dello Russo, a Lake Mary resident who died this summer. He and his associates late last year offered to sell the two courses to the county as a package deal.
Rich Hall, president of the Wekiva Hunt Club Community Association, urged commissioners to vote in favor of the county to take over both properties, which he said will protect home values and access to important recreation space.
“Our Wekiva golf course is the heartbeat of Wekiva,” Hall said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Please allow it to remain a golf course or a green area.”
Katrina Shadix, the executive director of the nonprofit Bear Warriors United, which supports wildlife conservation, thanked the residents of Deer Run for their efforts to create the special taxing district.
“It’s not developable land; it’s wildlife habitat,” Shadix said. “Let’s do that for more pieces of property across the county.”
No one testified against the county’s acquisition of either golf course.
Richard Durr, the county’s leisure services director, said with residents’ and the commission’s approval, the county will now work to finalize the contract for the land purchases and firm up budgets for the two projects.
gtoohey@orlandosentinel.com