‘People are very concerned’: Tarpon Woods residents take golf course controversy to county commission

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A quiet sale, tens of thousands of dollars owed and residents are taking their concerns to county commissioners.

“Flooding concerns, property values, quality of life,” one resident said.

“A real concern with what’s happening,” another homeowner said.

“Please do not let this happen to this neighborhood,” another Tarpon Woods community member said at Thursday’s county commission meeting.

The Tarpon Woods golf course sold in 2022.

Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty said he just found that out a couple weeks ago and that the proper forms still haven’t been filed by the new owners.

That was a more than $75,000 mistake.

Now, the people like Kelly Paige who live along the golf course are outraged.

Paige said she bought her home after the 2022 sale and had no idea.

“If we lose 20-30% of house value, some of us are going to lose a quarter of a million dollars,” she said.

News Channel 8 took these concerns to Kyle Parks, who is answering questions from the press for the new owners.

“We are continuing to focus on creating a conservation easement related to taking the property back to its natural state,” Parks said. “For the surrounding community, we feel this alternative is far better than doing residential development on the property.”

Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers said there could be more to the story.

“There is indication through some of the [Development Review Committee] meetings that there may be some other things coming,” he said.

Eggers couldn’t get into the details, but said he heard residents loud and clear.

“People are very concerned about it from a number of perspectives and some of it is the bait-and-switch having a golf course back there, but the flooding, the nature issue — all of that is a problem,” he said. “That’s the issues they’re coming forward with.”

“Hopefully [The Southwest Florida Water Management District] will take all of that into account all of that at their hearing on the issue,” he said.

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