How former members are trying to save 17 Grand Strand tennis courts from becoming housing
Litchfield Country Club featured tennis courts for 52 years after its opening in 1966.
The Pawleys Island property’s 17 clay courts have been closed since October, however, and there is a proposal to convert them into 108 one-bedroom condos.
That potential demolition of their beloved courts has mobilized many of the racquet club’s former members, who are attempting to save them with money and public support.
Past club members have organized about a dozen investors willing to buy the courts and are seeking more, and also plan to lobby Georgetown County’s planning commission and county council to deny a requested zoning change that is required for home building.
Former racquet club member Michael Mushock, sales manager for International Paper plants in Georgetown and Savannah, Ga., is one of the resistance organizers.
“Why would you take a property that already has a footprint for tennis, that was snatched away from the community as a greater whole, to build condos?” Mushock asked. “When you fly into Myrtle Beach all you see is pine trees. You could choose another piece of property to build condos.”
Property owner Founders Group International, a Chinese-led company that owns and operates 22 golf courses and has several other properties on the Grand Strand, cited several years of the racquet club’s financial struggles for its closing in October.
Trey Smith, a developer, realtor and Pawleys Island resident, is the managing partner of a group that formed the Wimbledon Village LLC and has a sales contract with FGI for the courts.
They have submitted an application prepared by ASI Engineers Inc. of Myrtle Beach to Georgetown County planning and zoning staff that requests a zoning change within the Litchfield CC Planned Development (PD) that will allow the building of multifamily housing on the courts.
The plan calls for 108 one-bedroom housing units in nine buildings, which is the maximum density allowed by the county, and the conversion of the 2,500-square-foot tennis clubhouse for commercial use. The 8.8-acre property would also include wetlands and a stormwater retention pond covering more than 2 acres.
The redevelopment plan goes to the Georgetown County Planning Commission on April 18 for a hearing that allows public input, and Litchfield’s tennis group plans to voice their opinion en masse.
Prior to that hearing, the tennis group has a town hall meeting planned from 1-3 p.m. April 6 at the Waccamaw Public Library to encourage and coordinate support for saving the courts.
The rezoning request will go to county council for approval or denial, with a recommendation from the planning commission. Georgetown County chief planner Holly Richardson said the tennis courts are currently zoned for recreational use, and a traffic study may be required before the rezoning request is approved or disapproved by council.
Mushock said it was announced around August that the racquet club would close in October, and some tennis members inquired about purchasing the courts from FGI but were not given the opportunity.
“It was never offered to the members,” Mushock said. “Some of the members – I don’t want to reveal their net worth – but there are some guys who are willing to buy the club. We have a group that wants to buy the club.”
Smith said he received “a very low offer” from the tennis group and has made a pair of counter offers – one that would allow them to purchase the entire property and one that would retain nine courts, the clubhouse, a grandstand, some infrastructure and more than 30 parking spaces.
“They could retain the club and carry on their activities,’ said Smith, who added he has placed a nonrefundable deposit with FGI. “To me that is the ultimate compromise and it would reduce our density by 50 percent. If we could put that deal together I would be very happy that we did it.”
Mushock said there were more than 90 members when the club was shut down. Once the racquet club closed, most of Litchfield’s tennis members went to either the Waccamaw Regional Tennis Center at nearby Stables Park that is operated by the county, or private Wachesaw Plantation Tennis Club.
Mushock believes the racquet club, which was the longtime host of the South Carolina Closed Adult Clay Court Championships, can be profitable if promoted correctly because of the current popularity of tennis in the South – specifically by marketing to retirees from urban tennis markets including Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh and Cincinnati.
“We’ll try to build community support for this,” Mushock said. “The whole Litchfield Country Club community is rallying and I believe the former members of the racquet club are rallying, and we’ll see. They’re taking this land away from the community.”
Wimbledon Village LLC has already purchased property at Litchfield Country Club and sold it to Ameri Built Homes of Myrtle Beach, which has started construction on 14 housing units in duplexes north of the courts near the Litchfield CC entrance off Hawthorn Drive. That land was already zoned for multifamily housing within the PD, so it only required review and approval by county staff.
Smith said he would likely contract with Ameri Built Homes for construction on the tennis courts as well.
Smith noted his proposed multifamily development falls between the residential area around the Litchfield CC golf course zoned R-10, which allows single-family homes on lots of at least 10,000 square feet, and a commercial area incorporated in the PD that includes an assisted living facility, Tidelands HealthPoint Center for Health and Fitness, and a Dollar General.
The properties to the southwest, west and northwest of the courts are single-family housing.
“We’re not going outside the box here. This is a transition zone from commercial, while still in the PD, over to the R-10 straight zone, which is the rest of the community,” Smith said. “There are multiple uses there. It’s not like we’re going into the middle of a subdivision that’s R-10 and asking them to spot zone for something with high density use.”
Smith believes there is a need for the affordable housing in Pawleys Island that his proposed development would provide while maintaining the area’s standard of decor.
