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Originally Posted by LiverpoolWalrus
3. Golf seems to be waning in popularity in some parts of the country. It's not unusual to see golf courses (or parts of them) being converted to housing or parks where I live now in southeast Florida. I know golf is very much alive and well in the Villages, but hypothetically, what do you think might happen in the future if interest tapers off in TV? Is anyone aware of any stipulations set forth by the developer as to how golf courses could and could not be repurposed if any of them ever become financially unsustainable?
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Golf courses here are, first and foremost, land set aside for water management. If a hurricane comes by and drops a foot of water (as Irma did for us a couple of years ago), the water runs off from the residential areas and into the golf courses and retention ponds. After the water event, water is pumped from the retention ponds and sprayed onto the golf course at a rate that can be absorbed into the ground and end up back down in the aquifer. The fact that they can use that land for golf courses is a side effect and not the primary purposes. And it's a very, very nice side effect for those of us who golf. In the future, when generations to come are not so much into golf, they will still need to set aside that same amount of land for water management. It might not be used for golf courses, but it won't be paved over and turned into houses. My wife and I have often wondered what other uses there could be for such land. The main thing we can think of is for walking paths through nature, kind of like they did for the new Marsh Bend area in the south end of The Villages.