Club West Course owners withdraw fence request | | ahwatukee.com

The owners of the Club West Golf Course have withdrawn their request to the city for a temporary use permit allowing them to surround the site with a chain link fence.

The request was to have been heard tomorrow, Oct. 31, at Phoenix City Hall by a zoning officer.

But on Oct. 29, writing on behalf of The Edge to Club West homeowners, Attorney Wendy Riddell said, “After receiving a number of concerns from neighbors in relation to the request, we are withdrawing the application for a temporary use permit for fencing around the private property formerly used as a golf course.”

Noting that “the fencing was to ensure the safety and security of not only the property itself but also for the adjacent neighbors,” Riddle said her client instead will post security cameras “at multiple points of the property.”

“It is still our priority to maintain the security and privacy of the property,” Riddell wrote.

She said the cameras “contain state-of-the-art technology with the ability to geofence the property boundaries, limiting the camera angles to only our property and not the Foothills Club West Community property.

“In addition, we will add more “No Trespassing” signs at various locations around the property in the coming weeks.”

Riddel also expressed a hope that withdrawing the city “resolves neighborhood concerns regarding the impact of temporary fencing, as well as demonstrating our commitment to community safety.”

The Edge installed some fencing along small portions of the perimeter during the summer.

But neither that nor the now-withdrawn request drew any official reaction from the Club West HOA Board.

The request comes about a week after the Club West Conservancy – in an unrelated move – filed over 700 pages of rebuttal in Superior Court to the request by two Shea Homes entities that they be dismissed in the homeowners group’s lawsuit against the Edge.

The 18-hole course has been closed for the last eight years except for a brief period between October 2017 and February 2018, when a different owner tried but failed to make it a sustainable operation.

In 2016, former owner Wilson Gee closed the course, saying he could not afford the city bill for the potable water needed to irrigate the site.

The Edge bought the course from Gee in 2020 for about $750,000 and had proposed selling three pieces of it to home builder Taylor Morrison for construction of about 160 houses,

The four partners who comprise Edge said at an HOA board meeting in January 2020 that they would use part of the proceeds from the sale to restore the course and build a new clubhouse.

But opposition from some of the community’s approximate 2,400 homeowners prompted Taylor Morrison to drop out of the deal.

Since December 2021, the Club West Conservancy, which represents some of the homeowners, and The Edge have been locked in a bitter battle in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Initially naming Shea Homes Limited Partnership and The Edge in its suit, the Conservancy claims that the golf course declaration that governs the use of the site bar The Edge from using it for anything but golf.

The Conservancy also alleges that the former Club West homebuilder, USB Homes, and Shea not only advertised a championship course as a come-on for potential homeowners in numerous marketing efforts but that it also promised a viable course in sales agreements with some buyers.

The Edge, which owns the land use rights, asserts that the CC&Rs specifically state that the site might not always be used for golf.

Normal annual judicial rotations at the court have seen the suit go through two judges without resolution.

Judge Christopher Coury, the third judge to preside over the case, currently is considering the motion filed Sept. 13 by Shea Homes Limited Partnership and Shea Homes Inc. that they be dismissed as defendants.

Noting they have never owned the site, the two Shea entities note that only The Edge owns the rights to the land.

The hearing was to have occurred May 8, before Coury so that the Conservancy, Shea Homes and The Edge could work out details for a trial on the suit.

But Coury canceled the hearing because he now has to hear arguments on the Shea Homes entities’ request that they be dismissed from the case.

One of the filings earlier this year quoted testimony by David Garcia, a Shea Homes Limited Partnership vice president, stating at one hearing, “We are literally done. We drew a line in the sand and said we are done. So whatever happens out of this whole litigation process, best of luck to the parties, but we are done.”

It also quoted Garcia referring to some homeowners’ opposition. “They want no housing at all,” Garcia had testified. “They want a golf course. We were not interested in building a golf course.”

Shea also has traced the chain of title to the land from the original owner, a subsidiary of UDC Homes, to Irish Greens LLC in February 1993.

Irish Greens sold the course to Club West Golf Course LLC in 2000. After that, in 2009, three different companies involving Gee each held title to the course for a while until the third sold it to The Edge in March 2020.

In a complex legal argument, the Conservancy argues that by buying UDC Homes, Shea Homes also is on the hook for promises that builders made to some homeowners the land would always be used as a golf course.

The Conservancy also notes that Shea Homes Limited Partnership is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shea Homes, suggesting that both companies are still responsible for the promises UDC Homes made.

It also has argued that some of the approximate 300 homeowners along the perimeter of the course paid premium prices for lots in order to have a view of the golf course.

Coury has set no hearing on Shea Homes’ dismissal request.

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