Timing Is Key to Golf Course’s Future

It may be five years until the fate of the Montgomery Village Golf Course is settled, but stakeholders in the 148-acre property won't be resting on their laurels in the meantime.

News rattled Montgomery Village that the owner of the private course—built in the 1960s alongside the Village's earliest neighborhoods—has agreed to sell half of the property to a Bethesda-based residential developer.

Since then, The Artery Group, LLC has broadened its scope to include the entire 148 acres and set an ownership option that lasts until 2015, the year that county officials would be able to rewrite Montgomery Village's land-use restrictions.

Community leaders, meanwhile, are hoping to seize on the resident uproar and inject a sense of urgency into their nascent effort to craft a vision for the Village's long-term future.

The notion of the golf course giving way to concrete and cul de sacs has especially outraged residents who live along and around those interwoven fairways and greens. Artery's first public presentation, on Nov. 8, drew more than 80 people—40-year residents and newcomers alike—who one after another called the course's open expanses an indispensable amenity, a respite from overcrowded suburbia, a source of contemplation and serenity, and their most cherished reason for living in Montgomery Village.

"If this goes through, we're selling the house within two years," said Kat Costello, whose home overlooks part of the golf course. "You're seriously tearing out my heart—and everyone else's heart—and stomping it on the floor."

The presidents of the two homeowners associations that border most of the golf course, Stedwick and Patton Ridge, warned Artery that no other issue so unifies the Village's independent communities. Ed Brandt, president of the Patton Ridge Homes Corp., pointed to the outcry that met the attempt in 2005 by the developer of Leisure World to build high-rise condo towers on the course. That deal collapsed within months.

"Montgomery Village is the Rottweiler of HOAs," Brandt said. "… We know how the game is played now. We're on top of this thing."

But selling the golf course is a financial necessity if not inevitability, said Jack Doser, its owner—a decision that has been years in the making. The faltering economy's impact on the golf industry nationwide, compounded by this year's run of harsh weather, have made the course an untenable business, he said. The 370 members would need to swell to 500 members paying "greatly increased dues" before the course could approach solvency.

Before choosing Artery, none of the property's other suitors was interested in maintaining the course as is.  

"The golf course basically isn't making any money," Doser said. "So why would anybody buy it and keep it as a golf course?"

Artery initially had been interested in buying the golf course's 64 acres north of Pepco's power lines. But after learning about Vision 2030 and master plan update, they are now studying the full 148 acres, said Bernard J. Rafferty, Artery's senior vice president of planning and development. Artery's business model typically is to do the research and go through permitting, then sell lots to homebuilders. So far, it appears that the golf course would be best suited for residential use oriented toward single-family homes, he said.

Stream buffers, wetlands and 100-year floodplains prevent nearly half of the land from ever being developed.

"A lot of what's there now will remain, no matter what happens in the future," Rafferty said.

Montgomery Village's unique zoning rules limit residential development according to the Village's total acreage. County planners created the "town sector zone" in 1965 and gave it a 50-year sunset date. In 2015, property owners in Montgomery Village can begin asking county planners to alter the regulations. Any changes to the zone will fall ultimately on the County Council.

If Artery exercises their option to buy the golf course before 2015, they would be able to build 64 single-family homes or 79 townhouses.

Artery has vowed not to race ahead with any plans.

"We certainly haven't put a single pencil to paper," said Hayes McCarty, Artery's executive vice president.

In the meantime, the Montgomery Village Foundation has embarked on its long-planned endeavor to create a comprehensive strategy for the Village's future. The steering committee for the "2030 Vision" meets Thursday night—now imbued with a sense of context that community leaders say is sorely needed.

"Until something big happened, we were not going to have a lot of people at the table," said David B. Humpton, the foundation's executive vice president. "And something big did happen."