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City Council votes down golf net ordinance
By Kim Nguyen, Staff Writer
The Plano City Council met Monday night to vote on a controversial ordinance regarding golf nets designed to protect homes located on a golf course. Plano residents braved the tornado watch and torrential rain to hear comments of public interest and waited anxiously for the council's decision.
After an hour-long public hearing involving nearly 20 Plano residents, the council ultimately voted 4-3 against the ordinance.
If approved, the ordinance would have allowed residents living in and around golf courses to erect protective nettings around their property. One clause of the ordinance would have allowed horizontal, vertical, sloping or a combination of netting up to 20 feet high around the perimeter of the homeowner's property to create an enclosure for the resident's yard. Under the ordinance, driving ranges could erect a vertical net with a maximum height of 60 feet.
Several residents were in attendance at Monday night's meeting to speak both for and against the ordinance, which had been originally presented and voted down in March. The council sent the item back to the Planning and Zoning Commission to consider revising several clauses.
Place 2 Councilman Scott Johnson voted with the majority.
"I think it's an issue of private property," Johnson said. "It is a person's active responsibility to fully understand all the benefits and risks in an area when choosing a house."
Johnson thinks all homeowners should weigh the pros and cons of an area before settling into a home - similar to choosing a neighborhood within a certain school boundary or within a reasonable distance from other family members.
"Cars and trucks in traffic, snakes and other wildlife in creeks - risks are everywhere," Johnson said. "It is the individual's responsibility to prioritize those risks."
Many of the residents referred specifically to the dog-leg stretch - such as hole No. 8 at Chase Oaks Golf Course - where golfers would intentionally aim over residential houses to stroke under par.
Cathy Fercher's family currently lives behind the notorious eighth hole. She feels that the council was right to vote down the ordinance, saying the proposed 20-foot net "is a joke and would not provide the appropriate safety precautions."
"It's a very frustrating situation," Fercher said. "I cannot believe that people are pitting aesthetics versus safety."
When the Ferchers moved to their home 12 years ago, they knew the property was in the vicinity of Chase Oaks and understood the possibility of the occasional errant golf ball.
"We expected one or two balls here and there but there are always more than a dozen golf balls littering the backyard by mid-afternoon," Fercher said. "We're bombarded daily with golf balls."
In a two-week period over the summer, Fercher was hit twice with golf balls that did not make their intended destination of the eighth-hole fairway. She is grateful that the injuries were relatively minor. Many of Fercher's neighbors have barely escaped serious injuries, she said.
As well as avoiding physical injuries, Fercher said her home has been devalued by the Collin County Appraisal District more than $40,000 due to the excessive number of golf balls flying into the backyard, breaking windows and damaging siding and gutters.
"Golf balls are like a bomb when they hit the house," Fercher said. "No one should have to live that way."
Place 5 Councilman Harry LaRosiliere is disappointed that the ordinance did not pass after voting for it Monday night.
LaRosiliere said he voted for the ordinance in an effort to create a uniform code that would define the terms and conditions for a homeowner and golf course to erect the safety netting.
"There was a focus on safety that the proposed ordinance provided," LaRosiliere said. "I think the council's non-action did not solve anything, and now every resident that currently has a net is now in violation [of the standing ordinance]."
Mayor Pat Evans was not present at Monday night's council meeting because she was ill.
"I would probably have voted in favor of the ordinance passing," Evans said. "But in the event of a tie vote, the ordinance still would have lost."
Evans thinks an eight-foot net structure is inadequate for a driving range and feels that the ordinance's failure to pass could require a future revisiting from the council.
The controversy of the zoning ordinance began in the summer of 2007, when the city settled a lawsuit over the installation of golf netting on a residential property situated within the Prestonwood Country Club golf course. During mediation discussions associated with the settlement, the city agreed to consider amending the zoning ordinance to allow golf courses and driving ranges to erect nets to prevent errant golf balls from leaving the area of play and entering adjacent properties.
Contact Kim Nguyen at knguyen@acnpapers.com
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