ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —There are new concerns over the future Stoneybrook West Golf Club in Winter Garden .

The golf course in Winter Garden, which closed in 2018, was recently purchased by the City and is expected to be sold to the Stoneybrook West Home Owners Association.

Some homeowners are now upset about added assessments to HOA dues.

When the the golf course was purchased, the understanding from the Stoneybrook West community was that its future would be up to them after they purchased it from the city.

The options were to keep it as green space or try to find a way to reopen the course. A potential deal is in the works for a golf company to come in, but some of the details have homeowners concerned.

In 2015, Mark Harvey was a potential homebuyer, and a drive into the Stoneybrook West community instantly sold him.

“While it wasn’t the best golf course, it was a decent course,” he said. “We enjoyed the fact we were right there on the 7th green.

The views to the course remain and the tee sheet is still closed, but green fees are adding up.

“Right now that is all I have seen in the last few years, is my HOA fees going up and up and up,” Harvey said.

Part of the increase is due to an additional $365 a year per homeowner to go towards the maintenance of the course.

“That generates around $450,000 a year for us,” Stoneybrook West HOA President Dennis Armstrong said. “That is the funds the HOA would utilize to maintain the property, trim the trees, to do everything else.”

The HOA is now on the verge of reaching an agreement to lease the course and clubhouse to KemperSports, a golf course management company that has expressed interest in investing nearly $5 million into refurbishing the course. 

Part of the deal includes the golf maintenance fee from the HOA to go toward KemperSports bills to maintain the course.

“The agreement we worked out is we would help them with this money and that they would share their gross revenues with us as part of the agreement,” Armstrong said.

It is an agreement some residents feel in the dark about, wondering where their money will end up going.

“We are not voting green space, or golf course,” Harvey said. “We are voting green space or KemperSports.”

If the deal with KemperSports falls through, then the nearly $450,000 a year from the community will go to maintaining the course, which would remain closed and unused.

According to Armstrong, if the deal with KemperSports goes through, then the community would pay that $450,000 a year for 10 years to help with maintenance costs until the next contract could be renegotiated.