Skip to content
Politics
Link copied to clipboard

Despite approval, W. Norriton golf course dispute goes on

A battle over the future of a Montgomery County golf course has escalated from a development spat to a litigious missile crisis, with both sides waiting to see who sues first.

A battle over the future of a Montgomery County golf course has escalated from a development spat to a litigious missile crisis, with both sides waiting to see who sues first.

West Norriton Township commissioners on Tuesday unanimously, if reluctantly, approved a plan to transform the Westover Country Club into a 103-acre sports complex with two picnic pavilions, a banquet hall, five basketball courts, eight tennis courts, five soccer fields, a football field, two swimming pools, and a skateboard park.

But Commissioner Jason Donoghue called the approval "a worthless piece of paper . . . that does not enable them to take shovel to soil or begin any form of development."

"The moment your actions are ripe for an injunction, this community, this board, and this commissioner will hold your feet to the fire of justice," he said.

West Norriton United, a group of residents, also vowed legal action, citing a 1991 deed restriction that it said barred the owners from building on the land or using it as anything other than a golf course.

Michael Gill, the attorney for owner VRJ Associates - a holding company for the family of baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza - said the proposal was appropriate to the recreational zoning district and met all of the township's requirements.

In a 12-minute monologue, Donoghue's face grew red and his hands shook as he called VRJ greedy and morally bankrupt, describing threats of litigation against individual commissioners as "a gun against my temple."

Daniel Piazza, who is leading the project, rarely looked up from his notepad during the meeting and declined to comment before or after.

The Piazzas, Norristown natives who own a large portfolio of real estate and businesses across the region, have owned Westover since the 1980s. In 1991, they got approval to subdivide the course and build a senior living complex on part of it.

In 2012, VRJ presented a plan to build about 1,000 apartment or condo units on the rest of the course. Residents roundly rejected that, and VRJ followed up with the sports-complex proposal.

The current project is largely the same as the one the commissioners denied four years ago.

Commissioner Stephen Tolbert, more mild-mannered than Donoghue, called it "a smoke screen."

"It is not apparent to me that the applicant intends to actually go through with building the recreational facility," Tolbert said. Rather, it was an attempt to scare residents "to attempt to negotiate breaking the deed restriction to build housing."

As an economist, Tolbert added, he found the proposal to be "not economically feasible."

Addressing the board before the vote, Gill said: "The antithesis of good faith is bad faith. We are reluctant to get into a conversation at this point in time about what the applicant's response would have to be in the event of a denial." He advised the commissioners to do "what the law requires, not necessarily what is politically expedient."

Residents booed and one cursed at Gill as he left the lectern.

Yvette Warren, a resident who was among those who signed on to intervene in VRJ's 2012 case against the township, said both the housing and the sports proposals were too dense for the surrounding residential neighborhood.

"Massive apartments are not up for discussion, and this massive sports complex should not be up for discussion either," she said, adding that West Norriton United would pursue all legal avenues to ensure the owners do not break ground on the golf course.

Golf courses are increasingly falling prey to declining play and attractive development proposals.

A former golf course in King of Prussia has already given way to a Wegmans, with a hospital, apartments, and retail space coming.

In Upper Dublin, the Lulu Country Club is still open for business, but the township purchased a conservation easement to ensure it would not be subject to development. Whitpain is exploring a similar easement for its Meadowlands course, with one proposal carrying a $6 million price tag.

Westover dates to 1967 and was designed by another famous local athlete - George Fazio, a pro golfer in the 1940s and '50s. Fazio never made a fortune playing, but he made a big name in 1950 when he nearly beat Ben Hogan in the U.S. Open at Merion.

In his 50s, Fazio began designing golf courses. He is credited with dozens of courses, many of them local, but the best arguably being Jupiter Hills in Florida. Westover was one of his early works.

jparks@philly.com

610-313-8117@JS_Parks

www.philly.com/MontcoMemo

UPDATE: This article has been updated to correct the names of golf courses in Upper Dublin and Whitpain.