Adaptive Golf Course Redevelopment: Identity and Balance

Unknown to much of the general public, the golf industry is currently in a state of ongoing retraction. One of the many outcomes of this retraction is the closing of hundreds of golf courses across the country, leaving many residential communities that where designed around these open green spaces lacking an integral part of their identity. The Calusa Country Club Community of Kendall Florida, is one such place.

Like many closed golf courses throughout the United States, Calusa is currently caught in a state of limbo. As the centerpiece of a master-planned residential community developed in 1970, the golf course once served as the identifying amenity for the surrounding community. Today that identity stands in jeopardy as the course is now closed and its current owners intend to redevelop the property. As is typical for many residential golf course redevelopment projects, Calusa’s future is clouded by competing stakeholder agendas and legal stalemates, both fueled by the proposed redevelopment’s alteration of the physical, social and economic identity of its surrounding community. The current property owner’s redevelopment proposal seeks to remove the open space that the golf course offers in favor of additional single-family homes. This intention removes one of the primary reasons why these residents chose to reside in a master planned golf community, specifically its close proximity to a manicured open space nessessitating an ongoing dialog between these stakeholders. It is at this junction within the continual dialog between this project’s various stakeholders that this thesis interjects itself with the objective of presenting an alternative plan to that of the proposed redevelopment. This thesis aims to demonstrate the potential for residential golf course redevelopment projects to present balanced outcomes suited to the priorities of its various stakeholders while simultaneously maintaining the identity of the community and its connection to open space.