City leaders in Green are considering the purchase of a 140-acre golf course – but whether it remains a golf course is up for discussion.
The city is looking at acquiring Raintree Country Club from its elderly owner for more than $3 million, and preserving it as green space. The land is currently zoned residential.
The facility includes a driving range and the largest banquet hall in the city. City spokeswoman Valerie Wolford says they’d get an outside company to run both.
“We don’t want to run a golf course. It’s not our expertise. And so using an outside company to run it – and lease it to them to manage it – makes the most sense. But we don’t know what that all looks like yet. There’s going to be a request for proposals and quotes from these various companies. And there’s a lot of them out there.
“If City Council decides that they don’t want to purchase it – because it is ultimately their decision -- and it gets sold to R1, the city will have to start planning if there is going to be a development put in there. Planning for infrastructure to the development. So not spending the money by buying may be spent on improving roads to get to that property in the future.”
A public input session about the purchase is scheduled for September 17 at the Raintree banquet facility, and council is slated to vote on whether to buy the property the following week.
