Questions Remain on Plans to Save Upper Marlboro Golf Courses

The owners of the troubled Lake Arbor and Marlborough golf clubs want members of several homeowners' associations to participate in a community forum and provide input on ways to redevelop the struggling courses, both of which are in need of regular lawn maintenance.

In addition to that meeting, the owners said they plan to post a questionnaire on its website by March 15 to get additional input from the Lake Arbor and Villages of Marlborough communities on what should be done to redevelop the golf courses.

Also on March 15,  the owners will post a schedule online that shows the steps being taken to maintain the greens. Last summer, the grass had grown so tall that Prince George's County's Department of Environmental Resources was asked to cut it. 

Hercules O. Pitts bought the golf courses in 2006 with intentions of turning them into thriving destinations for county golfers, his sister Stephanie Pitts -- a representative of Marlborough Golf Club -- told members of the District 6 Concerned Citizens on Thursday night.

Hercules Pitts attended the meeting, and said his lawyer advised him not to answer questions on camera. Pitts answered questions only after Fox5 reporter Wisdom Martin and his cameraman left the room.

"We want to be able to build a community within this community that's going to survive," Stephanie Pitts said.

By 2008, she added, the national economy sank and the $500,000 annual rent quickly became too much to afford, especially since fewer people were playing golf at the time. Stephanie Pitts said the owners want to reopen the properties this spring. Hercules Pitts said the grass will be cut at the courses next month.

"If the golf courses were put away and no one cared about them, that would be a big blight on our community," said Robert Bowers, who lives in the Villages of Marlborough.

However, residents were unsatisfied with what they said were insufficient answers. Many of them pressed the Pitts siblings and their landscaper, John Flippo, on the business plan to redevelop the properties.

One resident asked specific questions about the group's business plan. While the resident "asked a good host of questions," Flippo said, "we're not here to answer them" because the plan is not complete. That business plan still must be approved by Hercules Pitts, Flippo said. 

"From the day I bought the courses, I have never tried to elude that I would take out the golf courses," Hercules Pitts told residents. "I'm trying to keep it as a golf course. There are no plans to change that."

Several residents also pressed Pitts to sell the properties, especially since the county and the community stepped in last year to cut the grass and remove trash from the courses.

Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Dist. 23) of Bowie said the state can't step in to take the property. Also, state officials can't put money toward maintaining the local courses, since Pitts' company is a profitable business. Before the state could step in with funding, Pitts' company would have to be re-established as a nonprofit, Peters said. 

County Councilwoman Leslie E. Johnson (D-Dist. 6) of Mitchellville didn't attend the meeting because her brother-in-law died this week. Her chief of staff, Nell W. Johnson, said the councilwoman was "on top of this matter and aware of the situation."