Thread: Some Days you Can't Win For Trying.....

I am not quite sure why anyone would build a house in 1999 next to a golf course established in 1923 and then take legal action against being bombarded by golf balls. Nor would I want to be the guy who cut these trees down; the lefties in the city will be after his sap er blood.


From thestar.com

http://www.thestar.com/article/192031

No `fore' as golf club hacks maples

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR
Trees that bordered a new house rained on by golf balls are now fit for the fireplace. Islington Golf Club plans to build a protective screen.

Sudden move by Islington links to make room for screen in front of bombarded house upsets residents, the city, golfers

Mar 15, 2007 04:30 AM
John Spears
City Hall Bureau

This is a story with an unhappy ending.

Four mature trees have been turned into firewood. The Islington Golf Club has a third hole it wishes were different. The club's neighbours face the prospect of living beside a towering fence they never wanted, meant to block errant golf balls.

And a deep rift has opened between the golf club and the pleasant, prosperous community around it.

"How can we feel the same friendliness and trust we've always had?" said neighbour Iris Peterson yesterday, as she surveyed a landscape of felled tree trunks, massive fence supports and roaring construction equipment.

The fence the club is building along part of its eastern boundary will tower more than 24 metres high, with hefty black steel posts supporting black mesh screens.

To make way for it, the club has cut down four silver maples planted in the 1920s, over the opposition of the city and local Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby.

"I'm outraged. It's a travesty," bristled Peterson yesterday.

The story begins in 1999, when Charles and Pauline Sammut moved into a new house at the end of Fairway Rd., next to the third hole of the Islington Golf Club. From the time they arrived, their property was peppered with stray drives from the third tee; after they went to court to complain, a judge wrote that "they cannot sit outside for fear of flying golf balls."

Some neighbours said the Sammuts should have realized their new house was in the line of fire from the golf course, which was founded in 1923.

The Sammuts' lawyer argued the city's official plan encourages new housing construction within the city, and the club had, in fact, agreed to the house being built after the matter had gone to the Ontario Municipal Board.

The court sided with the Sammuts. It ordered the club owners either to stop play on the hole or take steps to stop the barrage on the Sammut home.

John Wright, president of Islington Golf Club, says a string of solutions was tried. The club proposed a chain-link fence seven metres high along the property line, but the Sammuts objected.

The club moved the third tee. It built a berm in front of the Sammut home, topped by trees. It changed the green, so the best approach from the fairway was more to the left, farther from the Sammuts' house.

The number of balls hitting the Sammuts' property was cut in half, Wright says, but that still amounted to hundreds per year.

The only apparent solution was the lofty fence, 76 metres long. But there was one last problem. The preferred fence line ran through the four venerable trees. Zig-zagging around them would have weakened the fence, Wright said. And while the fence is designed to last for decades, the trees probably wouldn't live much longer than another 10 years.

The logical solution was to take out the trees, he said. By Tuesday afternoon, they were firewood.

The move took the city by surprise. Officials showed up with a stop-work order, but the club proceeded, arguing the trees were covered by the city's ravine bylaw, which gives property owners wider latitude to cut. Wright says the golf club will plant 19 new trees to replace them.

But neighbours like Peterson – who regularly picks golf balls out of her own yard – say the relationship with the golf course has changed forever. And the landscape, once green and open, will be forever scarred.

"It's enough to make one weep," she said.

Bob Berry, another long-time resident, had taken up a petition to preserve the trees. He, too, was astonished by the cutting.

Berry says the golf course has overreacted to the judge's decision, which noted that "complete elimination" of the Sammuts' golf ball problem "may be impossible to achieve using the reasonable options available."

The city is now studying its legal options. The golf club had obtained a permit to cut only one of the trees, again citing the ravine bylaw. City bylaws allow for fines of up to $10,000 if trees are cut illegally.

Councillor Luby says she had expected further talks "to protect the trees and find a solution everyone could live with."

The court has put the course owners in a tough spot, she acknowledged. "However, I think even if the trees had to go, they could have gone through the proper process with the city, instead of rushing in and chopping them down."

If the Sammuts were feeling any glow of triumph, it wasn't showing yesterday. Pauline Sammut appeared upset as machinery droned on her doorstep.

"I just don't want to talk about it," she said.

Golf club president John Wright wasn't happy, either.

"This was our absolutely last choice," he said. "Nobody wants it. Our neighbours don't want it. The Sammuts don't want it. Our members don't want it. But we're at the spot where there seems to be no other solution."

THe same thing happened at the Essex County Club in Mancheser, Ma. The club moved the green and planted about thirty trees because it was cheaper than fighting the lawsuit. It still cost them low six figures.

I would side with the golf coarse on this one, from the info provided. Seems like they would have hefty court costs and other remedy costs acrewed so far. Black netting seems a little to nice. Pink would have been my first choice as long as nobody else could see it.
80 year old silver maples were probably havens for squirrel and coons anyways. Next lawsuit would have been, your tree smashed my.....

It seems to me that if the house is peppered with golf balls daily, then there is a good chance it happened when they were shown the property to begin with. It didn't bother them enough not to buy the house, so why the big problem now? Litigation is killing this country I swear. Common sense seems to be on it's way out.

I want to know who gets to keep the golf balls? Sit on the porch with a shotgun I bet people will learn to drive straighter.

Originally Posted by Jumper

I am not quite sure why anyone would build a house in 1999 next to a golf course established in 1923 and then take legal action against being bombarded by golf balls.

Just like people that will move to within 3 miles of a major airport and complain about the jet noise. ...here's your sign.

Gary

When you build next to a golf course the average person would say its par for the course to get stray golf balls. Since the golf course was there first they should have told the home owners to go screw themselves. Of course you cant do this because some blood sucker (lawyer) is more than willing to sue.

I've worked at 4 golf courses. And hearing about this makes me think that almost everybody involved must be a bird-brain except the golf course.

Around some golf courses, dozens of yards accumulated golf balls.

If a judge issued an order for the golf course to do something, the golf course was probably doing the right thing to follow the order.

I wouldn't be suprised if they were right about the condition of the silver maples.

In the article that the link goes to, at least the one tree shows some serious damage around a cut from a previous limb removal or dead limb removal.

An 80 year old silver maple around people either has been topped (or reduced for semantics) and must have decay, or needs to be topped/reduced for safety around people bcs it will fall apart. Good time in life expectency for removal and upgrade.

Originally Posted by CRN Tree

I want to know who gets to keep the golf balls? Sit on the porch with a shotgun I bet people will learn to drive straighter.

In my case, a buddy at work got em . I live on a major N/S highway with a neighbor just opposite on the other side. I started find a stray ball or two one fall. Then came spring an they were common. Figured then that the guy's kid was doing it deliberatly and was trying to hit the house. His range was about 20 ft short. Had a friendly chit chat with daddy. Daddy took care of it but wanted the balls back. Sorry, already gave em away.

Harry K

At least one good racetrack has been lost by people building houses around them then complaining about racing noises on the weekends. WTF?

Or people moving to the country and not like people getting in the cows early in the morning or working loudly on the weekends.

It stinks basically.

Originally Posted by hanniedog

When you build next to a golf course the average person would say its par for the course to get stray golf balls. Since the golf course was there first they should have told the home owners to go screw themselves. Of course you cant do this because some blood sucker (lawyer) is more than willing to sue.

yep, happens here in vancouver BC all the time...yuppies move to the warehouse/industrial district because its "trendy" to have a condo smack dab in the middle of a working industrial complex, then they ????? and moan and file lawsuits, getting the city to change the bylaws, shutting down legitimate industries, forcing them to move their operations elsewhere, putting working people out of work as a result. But hey, the yuppies get their peace and quiet now.

In the 'Too stupid to believe' category;

The Spokane County (Wa) zoning board approved an apartment complex. Where? in the 'noise track' area of the Spokane airport where they have even been eye extending the runway. Lots of uproar over it but they don't seem to be backing down.

Harry K

^ similar to Richmond BC....there is a small community living under the flightpath near the runway.....and guess what they do all the time? complain complain complain, tyring to to get the planes to stop flying over thier homes...... the CHOSE to live there!!!!

Ever seen Oceana Naval Base on the news? The BRAC committee keeps looking to close it because of all the fools who built neighborhoods around it. Oceana Master Jet Base was the east coast home for F-14s. They practice day and night. Virginia Beach has actually had to buy some developments that were in progress to keep it open.