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LOCAL
Wilmington StarNews
A golf course in southern Brunswick could be reopening after nearly eight years of closure.
Property owners of the Brierwood Golf Club in Shallotte have proposed a reopening of the golf course with some family-friendly upgrades.
Here's the latest.
Prior opening and closing
The 18-hole Brierwood Golf Club opened in 1967 with a 10,000-square-foot three-story clubhouse.
Owner Kevin Blum and a partner in 2014 bought the property for $1.5 million. By June 2017, the course was closed.
Owners come back swinging
Blum Investment Group Golf recently applied for a special use permit to the town of Shallotte to bring part of the golf course back to life. Plans also include reopening the clubhouse and adding a restaurant.
"The developer is looking to re-open the existing first 9 holes of the golf course with the same layout, which is the layout shown on the plans," Engineer Elizabeth Nelson with Eli Engineering, PLLC, stated in response to town and county staff questions.
The application and additional plan information is available on the town of Shallotte's website.
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Phased projects
Additional amenities, such as a community swimming pool, children's park and pickleball and basketball courts are also part of the plan.
The projects, if approved, would be phased.
Residents have questions
Residents Art and Diana Dornfeld have lived off the seventh fairway of the Brierwood golf course for 21 years. They say many residents in the Brierwood community support the course and restaurant reopening but have some questions and reservations.
The couple wants to know the plans for the other nine holes of the golf course, noting building a residential development would be disheartening.
"I would love to see it open back up as an 18-hole golf course," said Art Dornfeld, stating he also worries about road maintenance of the neighborhood if construction vehicles are needed for the projects.
Blum let the golf course go after asking the community for money to support the course, Diana Dornfeld said. She said Blum will have to spend a lot of money to make the facility appeasing. Repaving cart paths and filling holes along the greens are just two necessary repairs.
"It's a mess," she said.
Though the developer has big plans, Diana Dornfeld fears the developer will not follow through if the projects are approved.
"There's concern that he's going to start these projects and he's either going to complete them or he's going to just walk away from them half finished," she said.
Repeated attempts to reach Blum were unsuccessful as of Friday, Feb. 7.
What's next?
The project spans over 75 acres and is located in a residential neighborhood in Shallotte's extraterritorial jurisdiction. The course is currently zoned for residential use.
Golf courses require a special use permit from the town.
"Special use permits are quasi-judicial in nature, and require a public hearing before the board of aldermen," Shallotte Planner Brandon Eaton wrote in a letter to the developer.
A public hearing for the permit was on the agenda for the Feb. 4 Shallotte Board of Alderman meeting. However, the hearing has been moved to the March 4 meeting.
Staff said the application complies with all applicable requirements of the town's unified development ordinance.
Savanna Tenenoff covers Brunswick County for the StarNews. Reach her atstenenoff@gannett.com.