Ellie’s Notes – May 8th – No Channel 28 Broadcast Yet
It has been a really busy couple of weeks here for the SaveSCC teams and volunteers.
We are still awaiting word from Channel 28 regarding when they will broadcast our Sun City Center piece but it appears that will be next week. I keep asking, but I haven’t received a definitive answer. When I know, we will send an email blast and post details on the SaveSCC.org web site.
If you have not already signed up to receive our email blasts, do so to stay in the loop. Just click here to sign up. Encourage your friends and neighbors to do so as well.
We like to express our gratitude to all of you have attended and supported our recent events. Keeping everyone involved, informed and engaged is critical to our long term success and we can’t do this work without help. We’ve been making great strides assembling more and more competent, substantial evidence in support of our case to protect the golf courses for recreational use only. And your input or knowledge can bring to bear new facts that strengthen our case. We have been researching and diving through court records, county records, property records, and owners closing materials and documents looking for details that confirm the promises made to buyers. If you have something you think with bolster our case, bring it to our attention. If you see something, say something. Work with us to ensure our collective success protecting our phenomenal community.
Speculation is turning into action. With surveying crews spotted on the North Links course during the month of March, Save SCC is sounding the alarm on potential development. We aren’t backing down.
We have a “strong case” to protect the character and ethos of Sun City Center. From the 600 neighbors who packed Community Hall for the April 22 Informational Meeting to the 300+ who showed up for a demonstration of support the efforts to maintain and protect golf course land for recreational use only. The demonstration on La Jolla Ave Monday morning, May 4th, and the interview with ABC Action News Channel 28 reporter Keely McCormick were well received; our voices are being heard as we seek more public and governmental support!
Provided that ClubLink does not find a loophole around local zoning reviews, any decision on a development application here will be made by the Hillsborough County Commissioners. They voiced favorable support but it is never over until it is over. We must continue to press on and prepare diligently, and the effort requires us all to contribute both time and treasure.
Here is a link to a video of my interview with Keely McCromick taken by a bystander.
📢 Keep Us Green!
Recent activity on the closed North Links Golf Course has created “speculation” in the community that ClubLink may be poised to work with a developer to build homes on the property. According to residents living along the closed course, they reported seeing surveying crews and soil testers on the property.
The activity renewed resident awareness that “something may be up.” Not surprisingly, an overflow crowd of 600 people filled the Community Hall on April 22 to hear the Save SCC group report on the latest information regarding the ClubLink saga. Adam Gormly, Director of Development Services for Hillsborough County, also made a presentation and took questions from those attending.
More than 300 residents – many of them brandishing signs with slogans like “Keep Us Green!”, or “Senior Zone – Leave it Alone” – showed their support for preserving and protecting Sun City Center’s golf courses by lining the sidewalks for nearly 100 yards on both sides of La Jolla Avenue, just east of North Pebble Beach Blvd along the North Lakes golf course.
And we have over 6,000 petition signatures that I personally showed to Commissioner Miller when she was here for the Town Hall meeting. 95 % of our residents are for sustaining our community recreation spaces and marketability by preserving our legacy and golf resort lifestyle. This original character is integral, not incidental to our community.
Sun City Center is a one-of-a-kind. Del Webb, the original pioneer of the expansive, open vistas, immersive landscapes, golf course centric neighborhood master planned designs with views of water features and natural preserves and wildlife built in fun and play from the onset for an active senior lifestyle with all manner of recreating, socializing and entertaining. There would be no boredom here.
The Del Webb and the subsequent developers who built these SCC homes here were selling a unique recreating community lifestyle — a beautiful, amenity-rich environment in a one-of-a kind never to be replicated expansive open property with extensive natural surroundings and water features on golf courses with abundant wildlife and recreation, relaxation and social opportunities.
The golf courses were built from 1961 to 2005 as major centerpieces meandering across 1,138 acres of the community. They are the lungs, stormwater management, and cooling systems of our community – beautiful and serene. They define the setting and surroundings of our entire area. If we lose them, they’re gone forever. We were designed from the ground up as a low density planned land use community centered around golf courses. Over 20% of the property owners paid a premium for the fairway, golf and waterfront lots, understanding that golf courses, water features and related amenities were a permanent foundational element of the community design. The developers, from the visionary Del Webb to those who followed, promised and committed to every homeowner that they would provide and protect these amenities. The original design and master plan never contemplated developing them for housing. The courses were to remain open land for recreation, stormwater management, and neighborhood enjoyment.
We need to hold ClubLink and the County to that promise and community vision that has stood for 65 years and been reinforced by the Greater Sun City Center Community Plan published in 2009 and adopted as ordinance in November of 2010 as part of the Comprehensive Plan for Unincorporated Hillsborough County.
Again, thanks for your support. We need you and your support. It is a difficult and demanding road.
Best regards,
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Ellie Anderson
312-282-7337
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