Margate Executive Golf Course. {Courtesy Garden Patio Villas}
By Bryan Boggiano
The Margate Development Review Committee (DRC) gave approval to land use amendment, rezoning, and site plan items for a golf course residential redevelopment known as Springdale Townhomes. However, it comes with various conditions.
Matthew H. Scott of Dunay, Miskel, and Backman filed the requests on behalf of Fimiani Development Corporation, which will develop the project. Representatives spoke with the committee at their Sept. 26 meeting.
The Springdale development will include 137 townhouses along 21.3 net acres of the Margate Executive Golf Course located between Margate Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard, just east of the Coral Springs border.
Springdale also includes 1.14 acres of public park space and 0.57 acres dedicated to recreation.
At their meeting, DRC members expressed concerns related to drainage capacity, runoff, modeling and infrastructure, elevations, open space calculations, street configurations, canal embankment hardening, and engineering analyses.
Randy Daniel, assistant director of environmental and engineering services, provided most of the overall concerns related to engineering and drainage.
He stated he would need to see drainage service, water and wastewater letters, and documentation from a local drainage district. Since the golf course is located in a FEMA AE flood zone, Developers would also need letters from the agency stating there is no floodwater obstruction or disruption to others.
On the site plan, officials aired some concerns over the placement of a 50-foot fire lane in the park space.
Ultimately, the DRC decided to move forward with conditional approvals as long as the developers resolved all issues and provided the committee with capacity letters related to drainage infrastructure and flooding prevention by Oct. 9.
These items will go before the planning and zoning board on an unspecified date.
“We just want to make sure this thing can work, and there is no issue,” Daniel said.
Despite the DRC’s approval, residents were not as welcoming of Springdale.
Springdale Townhomes rendering {City of Margate}
Melodie Savoca, Garden Patio Villas Association president and activist affiliated with Keep Margate Green, opposes the project due to its effects on residents and the environment.
Savoca and other residents would like to see the land remain a golf course through city efforts, become a park through county or state funds, or be established as an owl nature trail with state-funded resources.
Other residents, however, argued arsenic levels could compromise the site’s natural value.
Keep Margate Green makes its efforts known at city meetings by wearing green and collecting signatures to halt land development.
While Savoca believes city commissioners are listening, she shared a message for the developers.
“This hidden gem of land is historical to our city and needs to be saved,” she said. “The owner doesn’t live in Margate and will not be negatively affected by this development.”
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