Waverly planning commission declines to recommend rezoning of golf-course parcel for 17 homes

The Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Waverly voted not to recommend approval of a planned-district amendment to convert Parcel ID 911376002 (part of the Prairie golf course) into 17 single-family detached homes. The commission action came after more than a dozen residents spoke in a public hearing about drainage, traffic and safety concerns and after the applicant described preliminary stormwater plans.

Why it matters: Residents who live along Third Street Southwest and in the Fairways subdivision said the proposal would narrow open green space, increase storm runoff onto existing yards and create new safety hazards where the golf course fairway would be realigned near new houses. The commission’s negative recommendation sends the application to the City Council for its review with the commission’s objections on record.

Residents repeatedly told the commission they had not been given adequate study of drainage impacts. Robert Warren, the HOA president of Centennial Oaks Clubhouse Patio Homes, said, “There’s a natural low spot and a culvert there now; pounding rains will go across the fairway” and worried construction traffic and repeated delivery of fill would damage the neighborhood street.

Homeowner Bill McCurdy said new pool and pickleball court construction already had increased runoff toward the housing area and warned it would worsen. “Their drainage is terrible, and it’s gotten worse,” McCurdy said.

Several homeowners highlighted safety and design concerns tied to narrowing the fairway. Dale Gokie told commissioners that his son’s house already has had windows and siding hit by errant golf balls and said tighter fairways “are gonna be packed with houses” and increase the risk of injuries or property damage.

The applicant’s civil-engineering representative, Bryce Aukin, told the commission the team had begun evaluating stormwater controls and was working with the city’s public works director to extend storm sewer and provide detention so runoff would be collected and released at a slower rate. Aukin said the detention approach would “retain and slow” runoff and that the proposal was still at a preliminary design stage.

Brent Dahlstrom, identified in the hearing as the property owner and applicant, said he had invested in the course and that adding housing was a way to help the course remain viable. “I need to have it run profitably or else we will not have a golf course at all,” Dahlstrom said, and described the 17-house plan as lower density than a previously approved multifamily plan.

Commission discussion focused on the development’s fit with the original 1999 PD master plan for the course and on precedent from earlier, smaller amendments. Commissioners and several residents noted prior amendments that allowed a pool and pickleball courts and a 2016 multifamily allowance in another portion of the PD. One commissioner said the proposal was a “substantial change” to an approved layout relied on by homeowners when they purchased.

The commission’s motion was to not recommend approval of the PD amendment to the City Council; the motion passed with one commissioner recorded as opposed. The commission also tabled the related preliminary plat review until council action on the rezoning is complete.

What’s next: The commission’s recommendation is advisory; the City Council will consider the PD amendment and any related plat or subdivision approvals. Commissioners and staff urged residents to contact council members to express concerns; staff noted that a rezoning change to a PD district requires council action and typically multiple readings.