Could this golf-course community lose its golf course?

Locals call the township of Brecknock in Lancaster County, Pa., a country place. With a population of about 6,000, Brecknock typifies the rural landscape that Lancaster County is famous for, with empty, winding roads, old farmhouses, and open fields.

Midway between two cities, Lancaster to the south and Reading to the northeast, the township has no big-box retailers or rows of tract housing, at least not yet. But even in Brecknock, a development controversy is brewing over its largest green space.

It could be the last summer for the jewel of Brecknock, the Hawk Valley Golf Course, which is surrounded by condominiums built in the 1980s and 90s. The landowner, Brecknock resident Jim Fricke, wants to build another 160 homes on the golf course. And neighbors aren't happy.

A grassroots group called Citizens for a Better Brecknock (CFABB), which opposes the development, filed a lawsuit against Fricke and the township in March 2006. In it, more than a dozen plaintiffs who bought houses in the original Hawk Valley claim Fricke promised the golf course as a permanent amenity in promotional materials.

"It's a unique case," says attorney Bob Sugarman of Philadelphia-based Sugarman Associates, who is representing the homeowners. "These people came to Brecknock because it was a golf-course community, and they wanted to play golf or wanted open space. For people to change the rules of the game, that's really pretty extraordinary."

Fricke cites declining numbers of golfers as an imperative for him to do something with his course. He says his plan is not unusual and is a feasible one for the township. Fricke has written to the Lancaster New Era twice to talk about opposition he feels in unreasonable. "It's a NIMBY [not in my back yard] thing," Fricke told the local paper.

Over the past year, neighbors have blasted the plan on many fronts, including stormwater management, elementary school capacity, and other quality-of-life issues.

"We've got horses and buggies driving on streets around here, and you're talking about putting a 159-house development on streets that were not designed for that traffic," says group member Don Robbins. "It is the wrong thing to do. If you have the chance to come over this hill into this valley, it is beautiful. What [Fricke] is going to do is put rooftops in this valley."

The feud started in January 2006, when Fricke cancelled grassroots group member Dick Moller's membership to the golf course with a letter on Hawk Valley stationery. The reason? The letter states: "Your efforts to thwart plans for development of my property have been observed these past few months."

Moller had voiced his opinon at a January meeting. "I stood up and opposed the actions they were taking, and three days later, I got a letter from Mr. Fricke … saying if I put a foot on the golf course, I'd be trespassing, and I'd be arrested," Moller says.

Last May, the board of supervisors removed Fricke from a township planning committee after another resident reported receiving a similar letter.

Hawk Valley's 1980s condos

As spring turned to summer, group members began to attend public meetings. When the planning commission met to discuss Hawk Valley, a crowd of of 300 residents attended to show they wanted to keep Hawk Valley green. About 400 residents signed a petition asking the township to request that the developer dedicate five acres for a public park. (The township board later ruled to accept $700 per lot in lieu of land dedication, saying the township couldn't afford to maintain the land.)

Last year, group members showed their determination to stay on top of the plan, hiring their own engineer to review the project and offer comments to the township's engineering firm. They also stopped timbering operations planned for the course, appealing to the board of supervisors that Fricke's tree-cutting would violate local ordinances.

Some township officials say their hands are tied. "If we could save Hawk Valley, I'd be the first to step up," Supervisor Art Zerbe said at a planning commission meeting last August. He believes that the rezoning decisions made in the 1970s allowed for the Hawk Valley project to go forward. "Here we are today. We're stuck. ... Is it fair? No. Could it have been developed in a better state? Yes."

Zerbe said the township considered acquiring the course through eminent domain but decided it would place too great a strain on taxpayers.

Supervisors Chairman Levi Hoover says the Hawk Valley plan is "not a done deal."

This year, CFABB members have struggled to keep apprised of the future of Hawk Valley as the plan bounces between various governmental groups.

Because the Lancaster County Planning Commission last August gave the project "conditional approval," Fricke must satisfy a list of conditions before the board of supervisors makes final approval.

"We urge the Brecknock board of supervisors, by all legal means, to assure that this proposed development meet the strictest interpretation of county and township ordinances," says Beverly Bresiner, spokeswoman for Citizens for a Better Brecknock, in a statement. "We hope that by doing so, it will cause the developer to rethink his course of action and either sell the golf course or continue to operate it as the viable and profitable course that it once was."

Today the Hawk Valley clubhouse is stripped down to a skeletal set of beams, but golf carts still trundle across the greens. Fricke says it's still open for business. He seems largely unconcerned about CFABB's efforts. "They do what they want to do," Fricke says.

In the meantime, the group awaits its day in court this summer. "Things are stalled," Breniser says. "That's good for us."

But if Lancaster County approves the houses, everyone expects the township to take up the issue again. When they open the books, Brecknock's homeowners will be watching, every step of the way.

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