CLEARWATER — The future of The Landings Golf Course, 77 city-owned acres in Clearwater, comes before the Clearwater City Council twice this week. Council members will choose whether to start negotiating a $180 million sports and entertainment campus or keep the land a golf course for another 20 years.
Both proposers present Monday at a 1:30 p.m. work session. The council is expected to vote Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. on “whether to direct staff to negotiate with either applicant,” according to the city. Wednesday's vote would pick a negotiating partner, not approve a final deal.
The two proposals
Porter Development wants a 99-year lease and would put about $180 million into a sports and entertainment complex. Plans include multipurpose fields, covered pickleball courts, sand volleyball, a family entertainment center and a resort-style water park, FOX 13 reported. The developer has since added a 220,000-square-foot fieldhouse with indoor courts, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported Monday.
Clearwater Golf Associates, the course's current operator, wants to extend its lease for 20 years and make improvements to the course.
The sports campus proposal scored higher than the golf proposal at a city evaluation committee meeting last Thursday, ABC Action News reported. City staff will walk the council through those scores Monday. Each proposer gets a five-minute presentation, and the council can ask questions.
Who's for it, who's against it
Youth sports groups are pushing for the complex. “We have major tournaments that run every year, lots of economic impact that's now going to Sarasota and Manatee County that, quite frankly, we would rather have here in the city of Clearwater,” Ken Jewell, president of the Clearwater Chargers Soccer Club, told FOX 13.
Nearby residents organized as Keep Keene Green worry about traffic, noise and losing the green space, which they say helps protect the local aquifer. Beth Davis of the group also pointed FOX 13 to a 2019 geotechnical and environmental study that found contamination in debris on the property. “Testing results include arsenic and lead, dieldrin, chlordane, toxaphene,” she said. She wants the city to look closely at those findings before moving forward with either plan.
“We're not being heard,” Davis told ABC Action News. She argued the city should throw out both bids and write a new request focused on conservation and passive recreation.
Why there's no referendum this time
Many neighbors remember the last fight over this land. In November 2020, Clearwater voters rejected a plan to turn The Landings into an industrial park. “They're at it again,” neighbor Christine O'Leary told ABC Action News. “But this time we don't get a vote, and that is outrageous.”
The difference is zoning. In August, Clearwater's city attorney said that both the golf course and a sports complex count as parks and recreation uses, so leasing the land for another recreation use doesn't require a referendum, Bay News 9 reported. At that meeting, the council voted 3-0 to keep talking about an earlier $180 million sports complex proposal while seeking other ideas for the site. Mayor Bruce Rector and Council member Michael Mannino recused themselves, citing possible conflicts of interest.
Supporters at that meeting said the project would give young people a safe place to go. Council member David Allbritton argued it could clean up buried trash at the former landfill site. “Most people see The Landings golf course as a pristine, green aquifer instead of a grassed-over garbage dump,” he said then. “This project should, or would, remediate the buried trash and make the water quality that flows into Stevenson Creek clean again.”
How to weigh in
Both meetings are in the council chambers at the Clearwater Main Library, 100 N. Osceola Ave. Monday's work session is open to the public, but no public comment will be taken. Residents can speak at Wednesday's 6 p.m. meeting, or email written comments to ClearwaterCouncil@myclearwater.com by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13.