Neighbors, We Cannot Be Complacent! The City Commission Delayed a Vote to Sell the Country Club, BUT the Fight Is Not Over & We Need to Maintain & Reinforce Our Opposition Before It’s Too Late!
Tell City Commissioners to Oppose the Sale of the City-owned Capital City Golf Course Property to the Capital City Country Club. Keep Our Public Land Public.
Access For All!
Call or Email City Commissioners and Ask Them to Vote No For Selling the Golf Course Property!
All Phone Calls and Emails By (Deadline to be determined)
Mayor John Dailey – 850-891-2000 Mayor@talgov.com
Jack Porter – 850-891-8181 Jack.Porter@talgov.com
Jeremy Matlow – 850-891-8188 Jeremy.Matlow@talgov.com
Curtis Richardson – 850-891-8240 Curtis.Richardson@talgov.com
Dianne Williams-Cox – 850-891-8502 Dianne.WilliamsCox@talgov.com
AND
Submit A Public Comment To All Commissioners At Once
Submit Comments By (Deadline to be determined)
Link to send comments to the City Commission: https://www.talgov.com/cityleadership/citizeninput
Reference Agenda Item: TBD – Sale of the Capital City Golf Course to the Capital City Country Club
Ask commissioners to vote No for Option 1 (approve the sale) and against selling the property.
AND
Attend the City Commission Meeting When the Issue is Next Agendaed
> Show Up In Green or your neighborhood T-shirt to show your opposition to the sale.
> We need a large showing of neighborhood residents in opposition to the sale of our public property.
> Tallahassee City Commission Chambers – City Hall – Next Possible Date is Wednesday, December 10 at 3:00 p.m.
Register To Speak On Agenda Item #TBD
> If you plan to speak, as soon as you arrive get a speaker form to fill out from the Clerk’s table outside the meeting room.
> Be prepared to convey your message in three minutes or less. It is OK to simply say that you endorse what previous speakers opposing the sale have said.
> Just showing up matters—you don’t have to speak unless you want to.
Additional Information and Talking Points: https://www.woodlanddrives.org/currentissues/proposed-sale-of-capital-city-country-club-golf-course-property
Contact Person: Jeff Blair, Vice President – FacilitatedSolutionsJB@gmail.com.
Talking Points
> We respectfully request that the City of Tallahassee retain ownership of the property in trust for the public, and its use be restricted to that of a golf course open to the public full-time, with no residential or commercial development; or alternatively, as accessible public green space serving as a component of a linear greenway connecting our Southside and Downtown public parks and greenspaces including Myers Park, Cascades Park, and the FAMU Way & Capital Cascades Trail system.
> The golf course property is a public resource that should be held in trust for the use of the entire community and not sold for the benefit of a select few.
> The stealthy nature and lighting fast pace in rushing forward with the sale of the golf course property to Capital City Country Club, Inc (CCCC), with virtually no transparency, community engagement, public vetting, or advance notification regarding the proposed sale strongly suggest ulterior motives and behind-the-scene dealings.
> The City has been rushing forward with the sale of the property, as clearly demonstrated by the proposed sale unexpectedly appearing on a City Commission agenda (September 17, 2025) without advance notice, and subsequently showing up on the October 22, 2025 Commission meeting agenda with a Purchase and Sale Agreement and expectation for a City Commission vote. Now the issue will be decided at the November 19, 2025 meeting with information on alternative options and their respective cost-benefit analyses.
> The City violated their adopted Real Estate Policy by misapplying several provisions used to justify the sale, and ignoring their public engagement and notification policies and procedures.
> Clear violations of City Policy include the following:
Section 136.06(6) states: “It is the policy of the City to maintain ownership of public land which is used for passive or active recreation,” and Section 136.06(7) states: “It is the intent of the City to ensure that the proposed future use of the property is consistent with, or furthers, the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Plan...” to wit, the current Future Land Use Category of the property in the Comp Plan is Recreation/Open Space. On this basis alone, the sale of the property should never have been initiated!
> Although we strongly oppose the sale, and urge the Commission to maintain ownership of our public resource, and despite all 5 commissioners stating on the record they oppose any future development of the property, there are virtually no provisions in the purchase and sale documents preventing future development;
> In fact, the only provision related to development is the requirement to initiate and complete a change in zoning from Residential Preservation-2 to Open Space;
> Zoning changes, and for that matter Comprehensive Plan amendments, have defined procedures for changing the Zoning and/or for amending the Comp Plan. A relatively easy process to navigate, and one where developers are generally successful in having their proposed change(s) and/or amendment(s) approved; and
> What’s to stop a developer from getting a Comp Plan amendment and corresponding Zoning change approved, and then building housing units along the fairways, while still maintaining the property as a golf course (since there are provisions requiring the property to be perpetually operated as a golf course)?
> We simply don’t believe the property won’t be developed, even with deed restrictions, and even if it remains a golf course.
> We support the implementation of a respectful, culturally appropriate memorial to enslaved people’s on the site, and rerouting the course so golf is not played directly over the site of an African American cemetery interring enslaved peoples.
> The City of Tallahassee should retain ownership of the property in trust for the public, and its use restricted to that of a golf course open to the public full-time, with no residential or commercial development; or preferably, as accessible public green space serving as a linear greenway connecting our public parks and greenspaces including Myers Park, Cascades Park, and the FAMU Way and Capital Cascades Trail.
Prepared by Jeff Blair on behalf of the Woodland Drives Neighborhood Association Board of Directors.