Tallahassee delays decision on sale of Capital City Golf Course after residents press for stronger cemetery and development protections

Tallahassee City Commissioners postponed a final vote on a proposed sale of the Capital City Golf Course parcel after hours of presentations and public comment on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Assistant City Manager Christian Doolin told the commission staff had negotiated a purchase and sale package for the city‑owned 178‑acre site that would preserve the property as an 18‑hole golf course in perpetuity and include easements and a separate commemorative easement around a plantation‑era cemetery on the site. Staff said an appraisal valuing the property as a golf course at $1.2 million informed a proposed sale price of $1,255,000 and that the purchaser, Capital City Country Club, and the city had agreed terms for memorial infrastructure the city would install and maintain.

Why it matters: The parcel at 833 Santa Rosa Drive sits inside the city and contains an unmarked burial site identified by archaeologists that local historians and descendants say contains the remains of people enslaved on the plantation that once occupied the land. Residents and neighborhood associations pressed the commission to keep the property in public ownership or to add legally ironclad protections if it is sold — citing the difficulty of reversing a sale or undoing a future owner’s change of use.

What staff proposed

Doolin said staff’s package combines deed restrictions, conservation and cemetery easements, and a perpetual‑use agreement that would require the property to be operated as an 18‑hole golf course. The agenda material included a memorandum of understanding between the club and…