The Ahwatukee Lakes Saga continues…. So as of last Friday (May 31st) the Foothills Golf Club Management company and the Property Owner Wilson Gee have decided to no longer maintain the Lakes of the former Ahwatukee Lakes golf Course. It has been decided that the new course of action is to drain the lakes and then perform the necessary clean-up and possibly plant grass in the dried up beds… Clean-up would consist of removing any and all trash, as well as the remains of any wildlife that may have perished, that presently reside in or on the Lakes. This morning I made a few phones calls and the results of said calls just amazed me… We have created so many levels of bureaucracy that I am amazed that anything ever gets accomplished…. First call was to Foothills Golf… yes indeed the water is turned off… and the stance by the owner is that they will maintain the property to meet the city codes… What does code mean, is the real question… Cut grass and removal of dead trees…and no mosquito invested waters… There is absolutely no provision or code associated with draining lakes or ponds… the fish and wildlife department has no funds available to relocate the fish or turtles or whatever else resides on property… So result is they drain and when wildlife dies they clean up… in a timely manner…. I made some follow-up calls to four additional city agencies… Maricopa Ordnance control… they have no jurisdiction….they recommended I call City of Phoenix Environmental services….they will only come out and inspect ponds and lakes as a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes’… nothing they can do about the rest… they recommended I call the neighborhood services division…this is actually the department that does the monthly inspection… funny thing is they can only enforce the clean up… so until we have dead fish, nothing can be done… The irony of all this is our local “saves the lake” organization is waiting for the owner to file a rezoning request to build residential….then the argument by “save the lakes” is based on zoning limitations…but until that time we all have to live in an area of rapid economic decline….the course looks horrible… and soon to be even worse as they maintain a minimum standard… According to one of the latest rumors, the potential sale would be to developer who wants to make the property a single story home community with an age restriction… probably include some lakes and walking paths…. Bottom line…you cannot force the owner to run a failing business…and he has all the time in the world to wait it out… Nobody will ever buy the property as a golf course…I would venture a guess that the greens are already ruined, this property will never be a golf course again..… Let the zoning change occur…. better than dried up lakes and dead grass….right now it is pretty ugly property…
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:22:00 +0000
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