The long-quiet Carolina Club golf course in Margate just inched closer to a very different future. On Thursday, the Broward County Planning Council signed off on a procedural step that advances a major land-use change for the shuttered course, even as nearby residents warned that years of golf-related chemicals lingering in the soil make the site risky to touch without serious cleanup. The move does not greenlight bulldozers, but it does push the property further along a path that could lead to hundreds of new homes and storefronts.
Broward planning council advances land-use review
According to CBS News Miami, council members voted to send Margate’s proposed land-use amendment for the former course on to county and state reviewers. The application, listed in planning files as PC 26-4, kicks off the formal review chain but does not grant building permits or authorize construction to begin. At the hearing, residents again pressed safety and traffic complaints that have dogged the redevelopment idea for years.
Soil testing and cleanup rules complicate redevelopment
A Phase II environmental assessment posted by the Broward County Planning Council reports arsenic in shallow soils at the former maintenance area and in test borings outside that zone, with earlier sampling showing roughly 9.4 to 26.0 mg/kg at depths of 0 to 2 feet. The same assessment cites a 2008 Declaration of Restrictive Covenant that confined the site to golf-course use and required engineering controls, including a cap, along with institutional controls until cleanup is complete. The report also notes that petroleum contamination in the maintenance area is under state-funded remediation and flags the site’s sandy soils as a concern because they can allow contaminants to migrate, a scenario residents say heightens dust and groundwater worries.
Developer plans would add mid-rises, townhomes and retail
City planning documents show that Rosemurgy Acquisitions has filed an application to transform about 143 acres with approximately 507 mid-rise apartments, 377 townhomes and around 57,500 square feet of commercial space, keeping part of the land as open space and trails. Those figures appear in public filings and staff reports from the City of Margate. Local business coverage has followed the deal as one piece of a broader South Florida push to convert defunct golf courses into housing, with planning paperwork also outlining potential one-time impact fees for Margate and Broward County.
Neighbors push for transparency and alternative uses
Longtime homeowners and local groups have been pressing officeholders for detailed remediation plans and have floated other futures for the property, including public acquisition or permanent park status to preserve the strip of green between nearby neighborhoods. MargateNews coverage and city meeting records document repeated rounds of public comment in which residents have raised traffic, health and property-value concerns dating back to the course’s closure. Petitions, steady public testimony and local lobbying have kept the proposal under a bright spotlight as it crawls through the planning bureaucracy.
What comes next
The land-use amendment now heads deeper into county and state review, with more chances for residents to weigh in. The Broward County Planning Council’s online docket still lists PC 26-4 as a pending amendment and includes directions for submitting written comments. Even if the amendment clears those hurdles, Margate would still need to complete rezoning, site-plan approvals and any required environmental remediation before construction permits could be issued. For now, opponents are gearing up to push for binding cleanup commitments before any new building happens on the old fairways.
