By Shelley Gillespie | Special for The Republic | azcentral.com
Pulte Homes is pushing on with plans to purchase the closed Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club from Wilson Gee and build residential housing on the property despite nearly 80 percent opposition from a group of nearby homeowners in a January poll.
Pulte acknowledges that it might take three to four years simply to gain approval to begin building the community, to be followed by years of construction. That’s a long haul, angry neighbors say, complaining that the course already is an eyesore that diminishes their property values only nine months after Gee shut it down.
Mike Brilz, Pulte Homes’ vice president of land/Arizona division, who owns a home near the Lakes and who has joined Save the Lakes, a group of homeowners dedicated to preserving the golf course, asked to be heard during its Jan. 25 meeting. Evidently, the membership was not moved by his pitch, based on an e-mail poll conducted by Save the Lakes in the days after the meeting.
“The group was overwhelmingly in favor of the current CC&Rs and not entering into any discussion with the developer,” said Ben Holt, president of Save the Lakes. “By a 78 percent majority they voted to ‘hold fast.’ ” Holt says a clear message was sent by the membership.
Until the fate of the Lakes course is resolved, adjacent homeowners who once had views of a lush golf course backed by mountains now see brownedout grass with bare patches, weeds and trash. Barbed-wire-topped chain-link fencing on the perimeter of the course was moved at the beginning of February. Neighbors had complained when it went up in November.
