Governor Ruth Ann Minner, Senator Nancy Cook, Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Brooks Banta and other officials and community leaders joined together on September 10 to dedicate the refurbished Garrisons Lake Golf Course south of Smyrna.
The ceremony marked the culmination of efforts to restore the golf course and prevent it from becoming a housing development.
Four years ago, plans were in place to turn the 160-acre golf course into a housing subdivision, but the state intervened and purchased the land for $3.4 million. The state decided to preserve and renovate the existing golf course and partnered with the Delaware State Golf Association (DSGA) to operate it as a public course.
Now the renovations are complete and Garrisons Lake is back. The course reopened to the public for golf on September 12.
“As a result of this project, residents will enjoy a quality of life they enjoyed before and can continue to enjoy,” said Governor Minner at the event. “Garrisons Lake is an example of what can be accomplished when you have a dedicated group of people. The neighbors banded together and stood strong.”
As she spoke to the audience while standing at the new clubhouse facility, Gov. Minner said “it’s better to be looking at these beautiful green tees than more houses crowding out the houses that are already here.”
Governor Minner commended everyone who had a hand in the restoration of the course.
“It’s a beautiful place and it has many benefits for Delaware,” she said.
Senator Nancy Cook said she supported the preservation of the golf course largely because of the need for open space, especially in light of all the development in the areas surrounding Garrisons Lake.
“For me, it wasn’t the golf course, it was the open space,” she said. “I think, many years from now, we’ll look back and say ‘thank heavens we’ve still got this.’”
Senator Cook also said the preservation of the course wouldn’t have been possible if developer Jay Sonecha of Blenheim Homes hadn’t agreed to sell the land to the state.
Gary Dodge, representing the Citizens Alliance for Responsible Expansion (CARE), echoed that sentiment. He said Sonecha had to make a hard decision to walk away from the development plans.
“Absent that, we wouldn’t be standing here today,” Dodge said.
After the dedication ceremony, Dodge said that the number of people who joined the fight to save Garrisons Lake showed how important it was for residents.
“It was a really clear indication that it was an area that meant an awful lot to a lot of people in the area, and worth preserving,” he said.
Dodge said the members of CARE weren’t all golfers, and they weren’t all residents of the Garrisons Lake neighborhood. Some of them were just people who had fond memories of Garrisons Lake and wanted to preserve it, he said.
Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Brooks Banta defended the state’s decision to purchase the land to save it from development.
Banta said that 450 new homes at Garrisons Lake would have meant about 1,000 more children for the Smyrna School District to education, increased traffic and an additional burden for law enforcement and the volunteer fire service.
“It would have been unfair to bring in new families, knowing in advance we cannot supply the services needed to support a reasonable quality of life,” Banta said. “The monies expended by the state for this project were far less than the millions and millions of dollars taxpayers would have paid for all the necessary support services for a 450-home development. This is a win-win program for both the state and the county. Thank you, Senator Cook, for taking the lead on this most successful venture and putting the taxpayers first.”
