Clubhouse and other structures demolished at Litchfield Racquet Club. What’s the plan?
Tennis-related structures at the closed Litchfield Racquet Club in Pawleys Island are being demolished, though the property doesn’t appear to be close to being redeveloped.
Property owner Founders Group International brought in heavy machinery this week to take down the clubhouse, gazebos, fencing, bleachers and nets on the 8.5-acre property that includes 17 clay courts that have been closed for 15 months after 52 years in operation.
FGI said in an email through Spokesperson Chris King of Kingfish Communications that it started taking down structures and grading land Tuesday because it will improve the appearance and ease maintenance of the property.
FGI, which owns and operates the Litchfield Country Club golf course, along with 20 other Grand Strand courses, has been attempting to sell the tennis property to a housing developer.
The tennis courts are zoned for recreational use, however, within a planned development (PD), and a rezoning request would have to be approved by the Georgetown County Council after first receiving a recommendation for approval or denial from the county planning commission.
Georgetown County Chief Planner Holly Richardson said the county has not received a recent application for new development on the property.
She said a demolition permit was requested and issued for structures and fencing on the courts.
Three redevelopment proposals have been rescinded by the applicants, the latest a plan to build 32 single-family homes by Ameri Built Homes, which had an option to buy the land from FGI. An Ameri Built marketing official said Wednesday the company is no longer pursuing development there because of its inability to get the zoning changed.
County planning officials have said they recommend a traffic study be completed before the council considers another proposal.
Trey Smith, a developer, realtor and Pawleys Island resident, withdrew two previous redevelopment plans as managing partner of Wimbledon Village LLC, which had a previous sales contract with FGI for the courts.
The first requested 108 one-bedroom condos and the second was similar to Ameri Built’s proposal. Smith said he was released from his contract. “They were very fair. I hate it didn’t work out, but it didn’t,” he said.
All redevelopment proposals have received opposition from the Keep It Green group, which formed in support of keeping the tennis courts but has grown to take on the larger mission of controlling residential development, particularly in Georgetown County.
“Our primary mission is to not allow open space, public space that is zoned for that purpose to be rezoned for residential development,” said Beverly Sullivan, a Litchfield Country Club resident and one of eight Keep It Green committee members. “We’re all worried now about where all this redevelopment is taking us.
“We’re not here to keep everything from not happening. . . . We want to make sure things that are not zoned for residential development stay that way.”
At Litchfield Racquet Club, Keep It Green is attempting to maintain green space or recreation for the property, and many Litchfield residents would prefer it remain tennis courts.
“We are committed to doing whatever we can do to be sure that remains open space, however long it takes,” Sullivan said.
The Litchfield Country Club Property Owners Association wrote a letter to the county in support of Keep It Green’s efforts. That POA does not have homes within the approximately 16-acre PD that contains the tennis club, but it has contiguous property along Hawthorne Drive.
“The POA vigorously and enthusiastically supports the efforts of Keep It Green to keep those eight acres as green space,” said Jerry Oakley, president of the Litchfield CC POA and former Georgetown County Council member.
When the PD was last amended about 15 years ago, it was proposed as high-density duplexes combined with the recreation space of the tennis courts in what was otherwise a very low density area, according to Oakley, who was a council member at the time.
“Altogether it makes it a lot easier to approve,” Oakley said. “If those duplexes came before council without the green space, I doubt it would have been approved.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 9:00 PM.
