One of golf’s fastest-growing course developers and owners, Canadian-based Cabot, has found itself in conflict with various environmentalists in Florida.
At stake for the developer is the possible addition of new golf holes at Cabot Citrus Farms north of Tampa. Cabot has proposed swapping 324 acres of the Withlacoochee State Forest land adjacent to the resort in exchange for 800-plus acres of Cabot-supplied timberland several counties north.
But aside from the change in usage and status for the small sandy forest adjacent to Citrus Farms, Cabot’s plan runs counter to the interests of multiple organizations and many individuals who argue that such a deal might be the top of a slippery slope on which more public land would lose protections.
This debate comes on the heels of even greater recent friction between environmental concerns and golf development, heated by a secretive but since-scrapped proposal to build golf courses in a Florida State Park in southeast Florida. Judging by public commentary on social media and in newspaper editorials, the debate about converting public land into golf holes isn’t over.
The Withlacoochee State Forest website describes the breadth of the activities available, including biking, hiking, fishing, boating and much more in a publicly owned amenity that stretches across five counties.
Cabot bought the former World Woods Golf Club in 2022 and quickly set about renovating its two existing courses. With the resort now branded Citrus Farms, architect Kyle Franz has completed the 18-hole, full-sized Karoo course, which has opened while work continues on the second main 18. Citrus Farms also includes two new short courses, and the resort will include homes and upscale cabins that will be part of a rental pool. If the land swap is approved, more golf could be built.
Citrus Farms sits on rolling, sandy terrain near Brooksville, just inland from the Gulf of Mexico. On the resort’s western flank sits the 324 acres of land owned by the Florida Forest Service that is part of the Withlacoochee State Forest, which includes multiple tracts and distinct environments among its total 164,073 acres stretched across five counties. The plot of protected land that Cabot desires is less than a mile wide, with the four-lane Suncoast Parkway directly on its opposite flank.
Cabot has proposed trading for that land, offering the state a much larger parcel in Levy County some 60 miles to the north.
“We pursued whether there was a chance to come up with a win-win, which would be the state getting greater land of significantly greater acreage and preservation value in return for land on which we could build additional golf to the west of Citrus Farms,” said Ben Cowan-Dewar, the Canadian co-founder and CEO of Cabot.
Cabot Citrus Farms’ Karoo Course (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Cowan-Dewar has overseen the recent transition of Cabot from a regional company with two popular golf courses in Nova Scotia into a rapidly expanding worldwide developer with properties in Scotland, France, Saint Lucia and both sides of Canada, with more destinations surely to come. Citrus Farms was Cabot’s first foray into the U.S.
“What we proposed is something we have done in Cape Breton (in Nova Scotia), a property swap to be able to build more golf which will create more economic development, more jobs and a more attractive destination,” said Cowan-Dewar, who estimates Citrus Farms could eventually provide as many as 500 jobs in largely rural Hernando County. “And in return, we give something to the state that I think they feel is of real value to them. That process is one we had done in Nova Scotia with great success.”
The land swap would be unusual in Florida, where state-owned conservation lands have traditionally been granted much greater protection. Opposition to the proposal has been ramping up, including from organizations that monitor Florida’s land and wildlife.
“The underlying thing is the precedent that this would create, the idea that anywhere in the state of Florida you could have a developer in a community that looks at adjacent conservation lands as vacant,” said Julie Wraithmell, the executive director of Florida Audubon and vice president of the National Audubon Society, a 600,000-member conservation organization that strives to protect land and wildlife across the U.S.
Wraithmell said developers might see an open piece of land and think, “Gosh, wouldn’t it be improved with a mini-mall, or with a golf course, or with a car wash?” But she said that such an idea, and the fact the state will contemplate such a land swap, flies in the face of constitutional protections that Florida’s conservation lands have traditionally enjoyed. She also pointed out that environmental tourism combined with Florida’s state parks and forests is a significant economic driver, as is golf.
“If your readers are golf enthusiasts, I’m sure that they do have interest in courses and opportunities” to play, Wraithmell told Golfweek. “I would just say that it’s about the right use in the right place that is the issue here. It’s not an opposition to golf, but it is that these protected places are important to Florida, not just for bunnies and trees but for our quality of life.”
Such objections to Cabot’s proposal have gained steam in recent weeks, especially since the proposal to add golf to Jonathan Dickinson State Park – nearly 200 miles away on the opposite side of the state. That plan was leaked by a state employee who later was fired. The proposal was then formally announced, protested and quickly scrapped in what has become more rare in Florida than a snowball: bipartisan political opposition.
The Cabot proposal had flown under the radar until it was quickly – and without previous announcement or public commentary – sent from the Florida Cabinet and Governor Ron DeSantis to the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC), a 10-member group with representatives from various state agencies. Among other duties, the ARC is responsible for evaluating any land swaps involving state-owned conservation properties. The ARC will provide advice to DeSantis and his state cabinet, which then will have final say on approval on Cabot’s proposal.
The ARC next meets Sept. 12 in the state capitol of Tallahassee, but the Citrus Farms proposal is not included on the published agenda for that meeting. There has been no timeline given for when the ARC might make its recommendations, when the group would provide any insight to data and opinions that might be used in making its recommendations, or when there might be a chance for public comment periods.
It’s unlikely Cabot’s proposal would have garnered as much attention if not for the Jonathan Dickinson State Park controversy, which united typically disparate voices. It’s worth noting that while golf is a common thread, the protected lands in question are quite different.
Jonathan Dickinson State Park is a popular respite from nearby and rapidly expanding population centers such as Jupiter, Hobe Sound and West Palm Beach. It’s 11,500 acres include boating and tours, cabins, canoeing, hiking, horse trails, swimming and picnic areas in one of the fastest-growing regions of the United States. The proposed golf courses there would have taken up more than 800 prime acres and forced a reconsideration of the park as it has traditionally been known. That park sees more than 120,000 visitors per year.
The 324 acres of land Cabot has tried to acquire in a land swap sits just west of Citrus Farms and stretches less than a mile wide to the Suncoast Parkway, a major toll road. Highway 98 runs just south of the resort and the patch of Florida State Forest, which provides a wildlife corridor since the toll road was completed. (Map by Google Earth)
By contrast, the state forest land that Cabot wants – part of the Withlacoochee Oak Park South Trailhead – is much less utilized. It includes rough trails and a basic parking area, and there is no official number available as to how many people might hike among its 324 acres. Squeezed between a large highway and Citrus Farms, it is a small part of the much larger Withlacoochee State Forest. Cowan-Dewar pointed out that the land in question was declared part of the state forest only as the Suncoast Parkway was being built beginning in the late 1990s with construction running for decades and still continuing. The environmental groups counter that the parcel is still valuable as a corridor for wildlife that was displaced by the road project, along with other benefits.
Also worth noting is that state parks and state forests are managed separately with different goals. The 10-year plan implemented in 2015 for Withlacoochee State Forest explains the need to preserve land and provide recreation, while also offering the possibility that timber assets can be made available for purchase to lumber companies, with the efficient generation of revenue acceptable. In general, Florida State Parks are managed to much tighter standards of environmental protection than are Florida State Forests.
Still in question is the value of the 861 acres in Levy County that Cabot will provide to the state if the swap goes through. That land has been used for timber production, and multiple studies by state organizations and universities have pointed out that such land and its curated pine trees provide less valuable habitat for wildlife than non-timbered and more natural parcels. It will up to the ARC to decide officially if the former timberland is worth more to the state and its citizens – in cost, potential revenue and environmental impact – than the acreage next to Cabot.
None of this, of course, is new in Florida. Competing interests long have placed developers and environmentalists into opposing camps. Expect the debate to continue.
“I think it’s heartening to see the way that Floridians are standing up,” Wraithmell said. “I think that everybody is kind of saying that there is no lack of places to play golf in Florida. But it is increasingly rare to find the kinds of places where wildlife is able to thrive and Floridians are able to have these kinds of natural outdoor experiences.
“Both (golf and protected areas) are important parts of the Florida economy. But it’s not a zero-sum game. We don’t have to sacrifice conservation lands in order to also provide golf recreation for our residents and visitors.”
Cowan-Dewar, meanwhile, hopes Floridians don’t confuse Cabot’s proposal with the Jonathan Dickinson State Park conflict.
“I can tell you 100 percent that we had nothing to do with that,” Cowan-Dewar said. “I think they got conflated, although they are very separate and very distinct. …
“For us, this has represented a very meaningful investment into Hernando County and into the state, and I think it’s been an unbelievably welcoming jurisdiction in Hernando. We have been thrilled to be able to grow these jobs and really grow the destination.”