WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — An update to a story we have been following for nearly two years, It is the future of the Stoneybrook West golf course in Winter Garden.
The course which has been closed since 2019 was supposed to go up for auction Friday but the city of Winter Garden made an offer to the trustee of the golf course which was accepted. The city offered $2 million, but would not own the golf course. The city now plans on selling the course to the HOA of Stoneybrook West which will pay the city back over 20 years. Each resident of the Stoneybrook West community will pay an additional $85 a year on their property tax bill for the next 20 years.
“This is a gated community, and in all fairness to them, they pay so much in taxes they are actually a donor community," Winter Garden City Manager Mike Bollhoefer explains. "So they get a lot less services and benefits from their taxes to their communities, so we did not feel good charging them interest.”
A bankruptcy judge will have to finalize this deal on Tuesday. The HOA of Stoneybrook West does not know at this time what they will do with the golf course once they take ownership of the property.