If you are a community at risk of losing your golf course, you should be aware that Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) offers incentives to encourage developers to convert and re-develop courses no longer being used for golf and identified as a “brownfield” polluted site.

The program gives developers state tax credits, $2500 for each job generated and sales tax credits for business supplies like lumber in return for voluntarily cleaning up pesticides and other pollutants.

The Orlando Sentinel  wrote about the DeLand Country Club as an example. Developer James Gendreau, president of Tailwinds Development, told the Sentinel that he understands how residents of golf-course communities  wouldn’t like to lose their long vistas and the stretches of green. One homeowner said she hoped the state would identify some portion of remediated golf courses be to left as just parks and green space; other wishes included 9-hole executive courses. Read more at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-golf-course-brownfield-incentives-20150125-story.html