Residents consider redevelopment of Lake Spivey Golf Club

A land disturbance permit, which may be approved within the next 30 days, is all that is keeping Spivey Club LLC from turning dirt on a new housing development, which would bring 128 new homes to the Lake Spivey area, says project manager, Jay Byce. The new subdivision, which will lie on the southwest portion of what is currently the 27-hole Lake Spivey Golf Course, has been a source of hope for some residents and a source of ire for others. Out of the 160 houses in the Lake Spivey area, which line the golf course, five homes will lose their view of the golf course, which will be altered to an 18-hole course as a part of the development. If built, the neighborhood would be the most densely populated subdivision in the Lake Spivey area, one that has the potential to bring increased traffic to Walt Stephens Road, which would be the only entrance point. Joe Hamilton, the owner of the Lake Spivey Golf Club, says that selling a portion of the golf course to Spivey Club LLC was the only way to save the course, which he says has been declining in business since the 1990s. "The golf business is in the pits," he says. "The market is disappearing ... people are doing something else. "Would I rather have 27 holes ... you betcha," he adds. "I've been here for 30 years, but I can't survive. The golf course can't survive without being recycled in some kind of way. It was either that or close it. Now I can operate it without going into a hole every year." Some of the residents, however, believe the developers have not been forthcoming in advertising meetings about the proposed development. "They did not notify any people," says Bill Ihringer, a Lake Spivey resident for the last five years. "They said that they had three meetings, but they didn't invite anybody. Nobody around this side of the neighborhood knew about it," he says. The development will take place over 186 acres, according to Byce, a space which includes the new subdivision and the golf course. About 140 acres of the golf course will be dedicated to a permanent conservation easement, meaning that no other development can take place on it. The subdivision would be built on the remaining 46 acres, meaning that there would be about 2.7 houses per acre. Ihringer says it would be "a ghetto-like situation." "This is a row house development," he says. "If you put people this close together, it's going to cause problems." Edie Lee, a resident of the Lake Spivey Golf Course neighborhood for 21 years, believes the new development would bring down the property values in the area. "I don't think what they are going to build will be comparable to this area," she says. "If it was one house per acre, then perhaps, but if you are talking about three houses per acre, nobody will be able to get their house reassessed at the right price." "How are you going to build a house that is worth $300,000 or $400,000 on a quarter of an acre?" she asks. "They would probably bring down the property value for everyone around." According to some of the home owners'associations in the area, however, the developers have done their best to meet the concerns of residents. "I can't find any ground swell of opposition to this project," says Janie Griffin, president of the Lake Spivey Civic Association. "I got phone calls from two residents. Both of their concerns had to do with the entrance to the development, not the development itself. I know that there are people who may not like it, but they don't appear to have done anything wrong." "Before I stuck my neck out, I tried to find if there was anything underhanded," she adds, saying that she confronted the developer with concerns of storm water run-off, how the development would affect the lake, traffic concerns on Walt Stephens Road, and worries about whether the development would be substandard. "As an organization, all of our questions were answered positively, and we don't have any opposition to the development," she says. "There is no formal support or opposition to it, but the concerns have been answered." Raymond Baggarly, president of the Northshore Homeowners Association, says he doesn't have a problem with the development, either. "They evidently have satisfied the requirements required by the state," he says. "They satisfied me personally, and if I was alarmed, I would have called them back and said there is a problem with this. Everybody would like [the golf course] to stay how it is, but that's not going to happen. Something was going to happen over there, but to me, this is the best option of all." Jeff Metarko, an engineer with Clayton County's Transportation and Development department, says the developer has not yet met all of the requirements to begin building, but as far as road work, the project has been meeting the minimal standards of the county. He says the developer has even gone beyond some of the requirements, by adding deceleration lanes on both sides of Walt Stephens Road, leading into the subdivision, rather than on just one side. "He's been going through the process," Metarko says. "Has he met all the requirements? Not yet. It's a normal process. It usually takes two or three submittals for them to satisfy our guidelines." Commissioner Michael Edmondson believes that Spivey Club LLC is going about things in the right manor. "The developers have done everything that they can to make themselves open to the county," he says. "This is one of only a very few high-end developments that the county has seen in awhile." "We think that we are doing the right thing for the community," says Byce. "We've had five town hall meetings now. All the home owners' associations seem to agree with us. "We think that we are going to increase their property value by doing this development."