HomeMy WebLinkAbout4977 64 Kings Circuit Letter of Opposition 2 Town Of Yarmouth Board Of Appeals RECEIVED
1146 Route 28
South Yarmouth MA 02664-4451
OCT 18 2022
Re: Petition #4907 (I YARMOUTH
Unlimited public play on the Kingsway Golf Course BOARD OF APPEALS
I am writing once again to express my concerns about "lifting the cap" at
Kingsway.
The Kingsway Trust Board Members current tactic is to "Scare" Kingsway
residents with an increase in assessments to homeowners. They have circulated a
petition requesting signatures which many residents have signed in fear of this
increase. (See document attached - Important Development Affects all
Homeowners) which was placed in resident mailboxes, as well as, The Kingsway
Crier monthly publication.
Kingsway is a small "executive" course with limited facilities, I.e. golf cart storage,
charging stations, equipment storage, parking, etc. There is no driving range and
so golf lessons have not been a viable option.
And so it has always been difficult to "grow" the game of golf by creating new
golfers for anyone who manages the Kingsway Golf Course including Bob Miller,
our current golf course manager.
Also, please refer to my previous letter of the town dated 8/31/22 for additional
information which is also attached.
The Sterling Golf Course Management Company will find itself in the same
predicament. And so their solution is to offer cheap pricing and high volume as
their modus operandi. And this means taking players from other golf courses
including Town Of Yarmouth Public Golf Courses. Also, Sterling offers their golf
members with reciprocity to any of the golf courses it manages. This is typically
free with the exception of golf cart rentals. So those Sterling members who are
visiting the CAPE will understandably use Kingsway Golf Course rather than public
courses.
The Kingsway Trust has never provided answers to making Kingsway Into a public
course with respect to traffic, parking, safety, quality of life issues, property
values, as well as, golf membership access to tee times and league play. A couple
7
I
of weeks ago on a September weekend, there was no parking available in either
restaurant or golf parking lot because of a restaurant and golf course event. Cars
were parked ,
adjacent to the golf parking lot and pickle ball courts. I would hate to see overflow
parking on the "circuit" as we have emergency vehicles going to HEATHERWOOD i
on a frequent basis.
In any event, there are a lot of questions that should be addressed before a
decision is made. It would be beneficial for the Sterling Golf Management to
address Kingsway residents which the board did not see fit to provide. Perhaps
The Town Of Yarmouth can make this request to the Sterling Company and the ,
Kingsway Trust at the Town Of Yarmouth Board of Appeals offices.
I regret I can not be present for the October meeting as I am headed back to
i
Charlotte NC for "Baby Jack" arriving soon and will help out for a couple of weeks.
Respectfully,
Kathleen L. Schindler. 10/14/22
y ----- /
____-__>,,-,L4' ;,-,
,
Important Development - Affects All Homeowners
We wanted to update you on a very important development, that is going to have
a profound impact on the future of our Kings Way Golf Club, and has
ramifications that can affect every homeowner financially.
In 2009, Kings Way petitioned the Town of Yarmouth to allow outside play,
and, in and effort to satisfy all parties, a rounds cap for outside play of 8,000
rounds was approved. There were reporting requirements attached and
unfortunately, after 2014, no rounds reports were made, as directed in the
agreement. That condition has been rectified, and now the Kings Way
Trust(KWT) has engaged a local attorney, Dave Reid,to represent the
community in our efforts to eliminate the cap, for the purpose of increasing
outside rounds. Kings Way bears a significant property tax burden, in exchange
for less services than our single-family-homeowner counterparts. Additionally,
no other course in the Town is subject to a rounds cap. For those reasons, we
believe that our chances of success are good.
The reason that the rounds cap issue must be addressed is because,
REGARDLESS OF THE OPERATOR OF THE COURSE, the expectation
going forward is to market more effectively to increase outside play. Any
homeowner can see, on a daily basis, that the course is underperforming in terms
of rounds. The Open Space Contribution currently stands at $385,500, of which
$360,500 is paid directly to MGGM to underwrite golf course operations. The
downside of this model is that the Open Space Contributions, which have totaled
over$3,000,000 in the last 12 years, are NOT going towards infrastructure
repairs and improvements,which threatens the quality of the course, and creates
a very large liability for every Kings Way homeowner. The KWT recently
commissioned the United States Golf Association (USGA) to evaluate the golf
course. The report was thorough and comprehensive and detailed the
considerable deferred renovations and improvements required to run a successful
golf operation. The back nine cart paths, considerable tree work, improving and
replacing the irrigation system,renovating tee boxes and bunkers were their
major recommendations, which will take millions of dollars to address.
IF we continue to maintain the status quo in terms of rounds, the KWT will have
no choice than to start assessing homeowners to pay for all this work. Lifting the
cap to open the possibility of increased outside play, could mitigate that liability.
The information on the meeting is as follows:
Board of Appeals
Date of Meeting: September 8, 2022 Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Town Hall Main Hearing Room 1146 Route 28, S. Yarmouth
) 3r 1
Town Of Yarmouth Board Of Appeals
1146 Route 28
South Yarmouth MA. 02664-4451 RECEIVED
RE: Petition #4907
Kathleen L. Schindler SEP 06 2022
222 Kate's Path YARMOUTH
Yarmouth Port, MA 02675 BOARD OF APPEALS
I am a resident and golf member of the Kingsway Community. I am unable to attend the
September 8th meeting as I will be out of town and so I am writing this letter to express
my concerns.
Essentially, I believe the Kingsway Trust board members do not represent the wishes
and ideas of how current residents and Kingsway golf members feel about the Trusts
proposal to allow unlimited public play on the Kingsway Golf Course.
I feel the Kingsway Trust is trying to "railroad" their proposal to the town with relatively
no input "from us" - Kingsway residents and golfers.
They do not want to analyze their proposal with respect to its impact on traffic, parking,
safety, quality of life issues, property values, as well as, golf membership access to tee
times and league play.
As you know, Kingsway Golf Course is a small "executive" course with limited facilities.
It originally was a private course serving Kingsway residents and in later years, opened
the course for public use on a limited numbers basis set by the Town Of Yarmouth.
Again, the facilities are limited with respect to golf cart storage, charging stations,
equipment storage, parking, etc. There is no driving range and so golf lessons have not
been a viable option.
Also, keep in mind that there is a good size restaurant (Montebello's) whose customers
use the golf parking for "overflow" use as here are only 20 restaurant parking spaces - 5
of which are handicapped parking.
One has to wonder what would happen if the restaurant engaged in more frequent
larger events for weddings, graduations, etc. Are excess vehicles to be parked along
the circuit? Emergency vehicles are here routinely for Heatherwood residents
presenting access issues.
As we all know, there is considerable acrimony directed towards our current golf
management team - Lisanne and Bob Miller by the Kingsway Trust board. The agenda
of the trust is to bring in a new golf management team - The Sterling Company. But this
company is not interested unless unlimited public access is granted.
In summary, I feel the King Way Trust does not seek resident and golf members
involvement or input.
And more importantly, they refuse to perform an objective analysis of their proposal
with respect to traffic, parking, safety, quality of life issues, property values, etc.
Their agenda is to "open the flood gates" for unlimited public access in order to bring in
The Sterling Company. This will impact quality of life issues for Kingsway residents "Big
Time". The course will be over run with players paying cheap rounds of golf which is the
platform that The Sterling Group operates on.
I personally would like to have the Miller Golf Management team continue to run the golf
course. And I can comfortably say that there are large numbers of us who feel the
same way.
There was a reason The Town Of Yarmouth limited public access and I hope the current
Town council members reject the current Kingsway Trust proposal.
Respectfully,
Kathleen L. Schindler 8/31/22
I never received a mailing notifying me of the Sept. 8th meeting - nor have others. The
only ones I know of that received notifications were Heatherwood residents.
cc. Kingsway Trust Board
Cc. Barkan Management Company