When golf courses go out of business, they are extremely attractive properties for redevelopment.
A developer has been trying to build new homes on the former Calusa Country Club course in Kendall for years but was thwarted in court. A group of residents argued the plan would wipe out a tree island in the golf course lake, an island that houses several species of birds. Two years ago, the county agreed that the island was a significant bird rookery, with at least one threatened species nesting there.
“We have great egrets, anhinga, tri-colored herons, which is the state-threatened species, cattle egrets, I believe those are the only nesting ones but we’ve also seen snail kite and wood stork, a roseate spoonbill, we had white pelicans last year for the first time,” said Amanda Prieto, a neighborhood activist who has led the fight against the housing project.
Now the developer, GL Homes, has submitted a scaled-down plan which it says …