Whither Belmont?

Trees, flags and seasonal garden décor cover the front yards of each of the houses on Club Road in Lakeside. But so do custom lawn signs, advocating the conservation of Belmont Golf Course.

The signs, part of an initiative to encourage the county to keep and maintain the park, were dispersed throughout the community in recent weeks by the Preserve Belmont group, which consists of golf- and Belmont- enthusiasts. In capitalized bold navy letters, they declare “Save our golf course,” and “Keep golf in Lakeside.”

Though it is rich in history and known for being the host to the 1949 PGA Championship won by Hall of Fame golfer Sam Snead, Belmont is no longer the deluxe 18-hole golf course it was when it was designed in 1916. Whether from drainage issues and lack of repair or the nature of the game, the course has been used increasingly less frequently the last few years.

“The challenge of maintaining the property properly as a golf course has gotten more difficult over the years,” Henrico Recreation and Parks Director Neil Luther said.

The issue has been exacerbated by the fact that Belmont is designated as an enterprise fund operation, meaning that unlike the rest of the park system, the course is expected to support itself. Yet, the last time Belmont operated profitably was in the late 1990s.

‘No script’ for future plans
Henrico officials have struggled for several years to decide how to properly care for the course the county has owned since 1977, when it purchased it from Hermitage Country Club.

In January, the Henrico Board of Supervisors agreed that before voting to make any changes to the course, it would be useful to consult community members, Luther said. He described Belmont as the only park property that has never been master-planned through a community input process, which is unusual.

This is also the reason why the Henrico County Division of Recreation and Parks is hosting three public input meetings – the first took place April 16; the others will be held April 30 and May 6 – to receive comments from community members regarding the future of the course.

“The county does not have any specific agenda, in terms of plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D,” Luther said. “It really is intended to get open feedback from the community. . . But there is no decision today, there is no decision going to be made tomorrow, and there is no script that the county has.”

To Luther, receiving input from the community is a process that should have occurred 40 years ago, when Henrico purchased the site.

Peter Grainger, a member of the Preserve Belmont group, has lived adjacent to Belmont for nearly 20 years. As golfers, he and his wife bought their house partly because of its location.

“I look out our windows, and all I see is Belmont Golf Course,” Grainger said.

He described the property as a classic golf course and piece of history; it was designed by Albert W. Tillinghast, a famed American golf course architect who earned recognition for his designs throughout the U.S.

“To be honest, it really astonishes me that the county can even consider closing the course,” Grainger said. “It blows my mind every night that they can even think of closing it, but I understand that, in the business of running the county.”

Grainger hopes to see investments made in the property, mainly because of drainage issues that have arisen in the past. Throughout the years and as a result of several tropical storms in the early 2000s, the course’s drainage channels have collapsed and never been repaired.

It is issues such as these that Grainger believes have pushed golfers out of Belmont.

“You either do the work required and increase the numbers, or you let it languish and eventually people stop coming to it,” he said.

‘We’re not trying to get rid of golf’
Lifelong Lakeside resident Christopher McCook is a golfer whose favorite part about Belmont is its open view, but he is not opposed to re-vamping the area.

“We’re not trying to get rid of golf, and everybody kind of has that misperception,” said McCook, who is the vice president of Lakeside Youth Baseball, a complex adjacent to Belmont. “I learned to play golf at Belmont. I took my kid for his first time playing golf at Belmont, so it’s not about getting rid of golf.”

McCook explained that it is nobody’s intent to commercialize the property but rather to make Belmont a more multipurpose location, possibly with bike or dog trails and without eliminating golf. He believes that the county's prohibition of alcohol sales at its parks and recreation sites is one of the reasons Belmont is struggling.

Grainger understands why converting Belmont into an open park would be preferable for some. He acknowledged that it could make the area open to a greater majority of residents, but the county already has open parks, he said.

“There’s Three Lakes Park, there’s Dorey Park, we’re surrounded by parks,” Grainger said. “At least Belmont pays its way, somewhat, because people pay to go onto it. Nobody pays to enter a park, and yet the upkeep is comparable and more than Belmont Golf Course is.”

At a public hearing about the county’s proposed Fiscal Year 2019-20 budget held Apr. 9, Grainger explained to the board that Belmont is no country club. Instead, he called it a working- and middle-class course meant to provide citizens from all backgrounds with the chance to play golf and consider Belmont their course.

McCook encouraged everybody who could attend the community input meetings to do so.

“It’s not a fight, it’s not a war, it’s not getting rid of golf – it’s coming together as a group and we decide what’s best for this community.”

He will attend all three.

After the initial round of meetings, Luther anticipates the board will gather all the feedback and organize it thematically. Once certain recurring themes are identified, county officials likely will arrange a follow-up round of meetings to which all past participants will be invited and presented with their feedback from this initial round, Luther said.

Officials do not have a concrete timeline as to when a final decision will be made about the property.