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Residents fret new houses on old golf course - Florida Today

Jim Waymer, FLORIDA TODAY 9:54 a.m. EST January 21, 2015

The golf course opened in 1967 and closed after damage from hurricanes in 2004.(Photo: FLORIDA TODAY FILE, 2008)

PALM BAY â€" Talk of development on the former Port Malabar Country Club golf course has some neighboring residents teed off â€" again.

As they did with a similar plan in 2006, they once again fear flooded yards, gridlocked roads, and hundreds of trees will fall along with their property values. They also worry about the arsenic left behind years ago along the greens, southwest of Port Malabar Boulevard and north of the Melbourne-Tillman Canal.

"If this were done, our property values would crater," Louis Meader, who lives on Pinehurst Circle, said Tuesday to a crowd of more than 100 people at Palm Bay Senior Center.

The golf course's owner, Palm Bay Greens LLC, held Tuesday's community meeting as a required precursor to applying for a zoning and land use changes that will be needed for the subdivision. The owner wants to build more than 116 single-family homes in two phases on .22-acre lots along the southernmost portion of the golf course, with longer-term plans to build about 350 houses on the rest of the course.

But some residents worry even more houses might one day go on the 170-acre golf course, which many have come to enjoy as green space.

The development is expected to go before the city Planning and Zoning Board in February and to the City Council in March.

The golf course opened in 1967 and closed after damage from hurricanes in 2004.That year, Palm Bay Greens bought the golf course, aiming to build a 320-home gated community. But the three hurricanes that year damaged the golf course, so the owners tore down the damaged country club, tore up the tennis courts and filled in the pool.

The golf course sat idle as the owners prepared to build.

Then in 2007, an engineering firm discovered the golf course was contaminated with arsenic from herbicides and other chemicals used at the former golf course, located at 1300 Country Club Drive NE.

Some soil tests found levels up to 17 times state soil cleanup target levels for residential areas.

"It's generally where there are greens and tees," Jack Spira, attorney for Palm Bay Greens, said of the arsenic contamination.

Spira assured the development would deal with the arsenic problems, that the new houses would not cause flooding, and that the landowners would preserve as many trees as possible.

"In my opinion, I think it's going to increase the property value," Spira said.

Some at Tuesday's meeting weren't convinced.

"We're going to be diligent," said Karen Schrimpf, who lives on Island Green Drive and worries about flooding. "This way too many roofs, driveways and roadways."

Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JWayEnviro

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