Cedar Hills is teeing up

CEDAR HILLS — In clubhouse speak, a decision on what to do with the financially troubled Cedar Hills Golf Club is in the hole.

On deck are Cedar Hills residents, who will be invited to town meetings to share their opinions on if and how the golf course should be restructured to relieve the city of its bond debt.

And currently at the tee box are city staff and elected officials, who for months have been gathering information in an effort to identify the best options for the city-owned course.

City Manager Konrad Hildebrandt said the goal is to have the options identified, residents' input collected and a decision made within the next 60 to 90 days.

"The city is very anxious right now to move forward with this," Hildebrandt said.

City officials are mulling two proposals for restructuring how to pay for the golf course, including one presented at a City Council meeting last week.

Representing a subcommittee of The Cedars' homeowners association, resident HR Brown on Tuesday proposed a plan to sell a portion of the golf course for development and use that revenue to pay off the city's $6.2 million bond debt and cover the costs associated with reconfiguring the course.

The proposal isn't too different from the one presented in June by RC Management, which runs the golf course.

Like RC Management's plan, the latest proposal has an eastern section of the course at hole Nos.

13, 14 and 15 being sold for residential development. Brown's proposal also calls for a church building on the east bench, as well as additional residential lots on Centennial and in the area of the juniper trees west of the golf course.

The proposal estimates more than $7.8 million would be generated from the lot sales, which would cover the bond debt and the excavation and landscaping work to reconfigure the course.

The plan also includes four hole-by-hole scenarios for reconfiguration, three of which allow it to remain a par-72 course. RC Management's proposal indicated a likely drop to par 71 or 70.

Mayor Mike McGee said the city isn't leaning toward one proposal or the other.

"There are things we like and don't like about the different setups," McGee said.

The City Council isn't obligated to choose one proposal or the other, Hildebrandt said. It's possible that the council will elect to use aspects of both plans and mix them with other ideas from staff and outside experts.