Future of Fort Smith golf course in limbo

FORT SMITH -- Efforts to sell portions of a defunct golf course have stalled after pushback from some neighbors.

The city Board of Directors last week voted to table until May 4 any decision on a preliminary plat, as well as a replat, involving parts of the Fianna Hills Country Club, which closed in December 2018. The board also instructed the Planning Commission to hold off considering any further replatting of the golf course until after that meeting.

The preliminary plat would allow the creation of eight new residential lots at the corner of South 30th Street and Brooken Hill Drive in the Fianna Hills subdivision if approved, according to city documents.

Approving the replat would allow portions of the golf course to be platted with adjacent residential lots, which would create seven larger residential lots north of Queensbury Way and south of Crosshill Road.

This comes after the Board of Directors voted to postpone a decision on another replat involving golf course land for 90 days during its meeting Feb. 2, meaning all of these items will be discussed May 4. This replat would allow different portions of the golf course to be platted with adjacent residential lots, creating three larger residential lots north of Roxbury Lane.

The owner's plan

The Planning Commission unanimously approved these replats and preliminary plat, according to meeting materials. The Fort Smith-based company Mickle Wagner Coleman Inc. submitted applications for them on behalf of Fianna Properties, LLC.

Dalton Person, a Fort Smith attorney who represents Fianna Properties along with Mark Moll, explained Friday that the 158-acre Fianna Hills Country Club closed after consistently losing money for nearly a decade for the owner, David Millé. It opened about 40 years ago.

Millé and Fianna Properties have been seeking someone to purchase the country club for the last five to 10 years without success, according to Person. Millé began considering alternatives when the facility closed.

They ultimately came up with a plan to divide the existing golf course property into many tracts and offer what would be, in effect, extended backyards for sale to the property owners already there.

"This is an 18-hole golf course, and it runs through the community," Person said. "The last thing Mr. Millé wants is to have to sell this to a business enterprise that is going to come in and ... put multi-family development on these large tracts of real estate that would kill property values for existing owners and would completely change the makeup of Fianna Hills."

Person said they considered this plan the best solution for everyone in Fianna Hills. They believe it is both unreasonable and infeasible for the golf course to be operated in the future. No potential purchasers have come forward since it closed.

"The Fianna Hills Property Owners Association and others have had an opportunity to purchase this, and they have not done so," Person said. "They provided one offer to purchase, and then they backed out of that offer."

Person said while there are more than 100 "extended backyard properties" under contract with property owners, Fianna Properties cannot close on them until the replatting is completed. In addition to the three items tabled by the Board of Directors, several more preliminary plats of golf course property are in the works, with more being planned.

Resident's resistance

John Alford, an attorney for the Fianna Hills Property Owners Association, filed appeals of the Planning Commission's approvals of the two replats and preliminary plat.

Alford wrote in each appeal that if the commission's decisions are affirmed, they will interfere with association members' interests in the properties in part by "destroying" the ability for the golf course property to be used as a golf course.

It may also afford the owners of the lots involved the right to claim a vested interest in the properties and the ability to develop and improve them, which would interfere with members' interest further and damage adjacent properties by impeding and diverting the flow of surface water.

Alford did not respond to two phone messages left for him last week.

Resident Danny Aldridge was the one who proposed last month that the Board of Directors table for 90 days a decision on the first replat to allow the property owners association to determine how best to seek a resolution to reopen the country club/clubhouse.

Aldridge, a Fianna Hills resident since the 1980s and a Sebastian County justice of the peace, said Thursday he opposed the preliminary plat and replats of the country club property primarily because he believes that if any of the lots are replatted and sold, it would prevent the golf course from ever being sold as a golf course.

"The home values have declined on those homes that are on the golf course since the course has been closed," Aldridge said. "If it stays closed, I think those values will continue to decline."

Aldridge wants to maintain the lifestyle he bought into when he first moved to the area.

"When I bought my home on the golf course, I was playing some golf," Aldridge said. "I used the golf course for business purposes. I used the restaurant and bar extensively for business purposes and social activities. It was a country club lifestyle I bought into."

If one doesn't have a golf course, one doesn't have a country club, which could help attract people to Fort Smith, according to Aldridge. He also argued that replatting the property would leave "a lot of unanswered questions."

"What happens to the properties that are not sold to the homeowners?" Aldridge asked. "What happens to potential litigation because of heavy pesticide and herbicide uses and all types of chemicals for the last 40 years it's been a club? Who will be held responsible for that stuff?"

Aldridge said he had a two-hour meeting with Millé, Millé's attorneys and a principal investor on Feb. 11 that he called "very fruitful."

Person, however, said no offer was made during that meeting and neither Millé nor his attorneys have heard from those investors or anyone else since that meeting.