BRIEF SUMMARY OF EVENTS SURROUNDING THE SALE OF THE GOLF COURSE LAND TO THE CAPITAL CITY COUNTRY CLUB.

In October 2025, with less than a week’s notice of the meeting, we were advised that the City Commission was taking up a proposal to sell the Capital City Country Club golf course property to the Country Club who currently had a 100 year lease for $1/year to lease the land from the city. The Woodland Drives Board jumped to action, bringing awareness to this issue, fact gathering, and issuing emergency position statements opposing the sale of this public property. Over the next several weeks we worked with other groups and with city staff ultimately obtaining changes to the sale documents which limit the future use of the property to a golf course, and in theory, prevent development of the property. We were unsuccessful (along with many others) in getting the Commission to vote against the sale.  Thus, at the Commission’s December 2025 meeting the sale was approved by a 3 to 2 vote over the objections of more than 75 citizens who testified against selling this valuable public land over the course of three meetings. Although our efforts were not completely in vain and we did gain some protection for the property, we still have concerns about future protection of the enslaved peoples’ burial ground as well as the property itself, once it transfers to private hands.