April 5 Open Thread: A Mulligan for DuPont Country Club
Sharpley residents are breathing strong sighs of relief at this morning’s announcement that a couple of locals, including Ben du Pont, son of former Gov. Pete du Pont, have agreed to purchase the DuPont Country Club and say they won’t build houses on the more than 500 prime acres. What they didn’t say, you might notice, is that they won’t build anything.
EPA chief and paranoid loon Scott Pruitt might have accomplished the impossible — he’s been so corrupt even Donald Trump is starting to back away from him. It doesn’t help that Pruitt keeps getting caught in elementary-school-level lies.
Everyone realizes by now, I hope, that Trump is unimpeachable because the GOP will never turn on him. This article argues, and I agree, that rather than impeachment, the goal should be indictment.
Republican denial runs as deep and long as that river in Egypt. Hundreds if not thousands of Oklahoma teachers are protesting in the streets –but not really, according to one state senator who claims that 25% of them are paid actors from Chicago. I really do try not to instinctively loathe country people, but they’re just so fucking stupid.
I think I understand why so many Mexicans want to come to the U.S.: American corporations, led by Coca-Cola, have turned their country into a junk-food dumping ground. Just one more reason we should tax the living shit out of soda.
Giving America’s corporations what they want is akin to giving a 4-year-old everything he wants. So the loosening of fuel-efficiency standards once again threatens to leave American automakers sucking wind because other countries will take the lead on new fuel-saving technologies.
“… the goal should be indictment.”
I’m sure all my wingnuts will agree that no person is above the law in a Democracy. If crimes were committed all of America will come together to see that justice is done.
What they also didn’t say is “we won’t build on it but as we make the property even more desirable to developers we can’t guarantee they won’t build on it when we sell it”
I don’t think that’s how it would work, Arthur. You don’t sink $18 million into the country club so that you can then sell it as a tear-down.
Property is desirable to developers based on location, not what’s already on the property. Anything that has to be torn down is just another expense. A golf course is mostly open land studded with heavy concentrations of arsenic where the greens and tee boxes used to be. Look up the articles on the development of Hercules Country Club for reference.
Interesting that the News Journal didn’t mention the Ben du Pont is son of the former governor. Probably nobody there knew it, though it’s right there on his Wikipedia page.
alby the main thing they are upgrading is the club building itself. and they are taking half of the par 9 course for a new driving range. that par 9 could easily be closed and developed upon. its about 30 acres itself
If you read the article, Arthur, you’ll see that they plan on expanding it as a sports complex. I believe the only thing it’s zoned for is housing, so if they aren’t going to build houses on that 30 acres — not that I’d think it a very big deal if they did — they probably aren’t going to build anything.
Beyond that, I don’t think Pete du Pont’s son is buying the place so he can develop land right next to his ancestral home. If anything, I suspect he’s buying it to help preserve what the family still owns.
Yes, all those upgrades/improvements are taking place around the clubhouse area. the par is across the street. the only thing near that is brantwood. and i dont think a venture capital firm will be buying it as a ‘lets do this to not make money’
And Brantwood is exactly what I don’t think they’d develop.
So you think they would develop 30 acres as housing — they can’t develop it as anything else on that road — despite saying they weren’t going to build houses on it? You’re going to have to give me a better reason than your cynicism before that sounds realistic.