Owner closes Windermere Country Club

WEST ORANGE COUNTY  Members of Windermere Club Homeowners Association assembled at the association's board meeting April 19, after press time.

But a group called Save Windermere Country Club has gained hundreds of followers in a movement to combat over-development in West Orange County, especially the club – shut down as of this month – one of its largest remaining green spaces.

Homeowners in Windermere Club, such as George Huxhold, said they have met with owner Bryan DeCunha to offer alternatives to development, which he has declined.

“First off, I don't know of anybody that actually has made him an offer to buy the plot,” Huxhold said. “However, I do know for a fact that a golf course management entity sent him a letter of intent and requested that they get together and let this company look at his operation, so that they then could put together an offer to buy the club, and Bryan DeCunha rejected that letter of intent. ... Bryan just turned us off ... because of his single purpose. ... He just wants the county to give him his development rights so he can walk away with an incredible profit.”

DeCunha has proposed developing 95 homes on Windermere Country Club land, which homeowners said should not be allowed, based on county ordinances regarding its zoning as open space within a Rural Country Estate Cluster plan. They have noted sections that say the purpose of R-CE Clusters is “to enhance the living environment through the creation of permanent open space,” and “The owner shall offer to dedicate development rights for all common open space areas to the county … to guarantee that common open space areas shall remain in such a state as to maintain the natural character of the area.” The 150 single-family homes in Windermere Club were zoned and platted about 30 years ago.

The Development Review Committee twice unanimously recommended denial of this proposal, which has led DeCunha to a petition to vacate. That would have an end goal of transferring development rights from the county – which has held those rights from that initial zoning decades ago – to DeCunha, Huxhold said.

“The homeowners here I'm sure would get together and buy the property from Bryan at fair market value without the development rights and maintain the conservation area,” Huxhold said. “That's certainly a feasible option for us. The problem is that Bryan has these dollar signs in his mind and thinks he can get the development rights, and then the property is worth much more than what the homeowners could afford, and that's why he won't even listen to any other options.”

Beyond the closed country club, homeowners said this would affect their property values and the life they envisioned when they selected Windermere Club as their home years ago.

“About four years ago is when my wife and I decided we wanted to retire, come down from the north and the harsh winters,” Huxhold said. “Boy, when we got into this subdivision here with the winding roads and trees, the golf course – it was just gorgeous.”

Based on 28 years in the Navy, Huxhold said he had moved a lot, so he would be sure to examine all of the home sale documents. The unusual nature of the county owning development rights to the golf course as a protected green space was a weighty factor in choosing Windermere Club as a possible forever home, he said.

“Without that notation on the plat, I probably would not have bought my house here in this subdivision,” Huxhold said. “I really think at one time the county commissioners were looking to protect the homeowners, protect the area, and I have confidence that the commissioners will reaffirm what commissioners before them did by not giving him development rights and maintaining the area as open space, either as a golf course or as conservation area.”

DeCunha did not respond to multiple attempts at contact.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].