Charlotte’s oldest public golf course is set to be replaced by a housing development | Charlotte Observer

A public golf course in east Charlotte that’s been operating for 60 years could soon be redeveloped into a residential subdivision, plans filed recently with the city of Charlotte show.

Larkhaven Golf Course, on Camp Stewart Road near Interstate 485 and Albemarle Road, was opened in 1958 by Barron Connell and his son, Butch, on land that was once a dairy farm. Daily fees range from $20 to $30, including a cart.

“In a city that loves its own sparkle, Larkhaven is a grassroots reminder of how Charlotte used to be and how golf, for most of us, will always be,” former Observer columnist Ron Green, Jr., wrote in a 2008 story on the course’s 50th anniversary. “It is not a country club and has never tried to be one.”

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Meritage Homes of the Carolinas, the subsidiary of an Arizona-based homebuilder, filed plans this month to rezone the 140-acre property for single-family houses.

A site plan shows 350 houses, laid out along a new network of streets and cul-de-sacs. About 40 percent of the site, 56 acres, would be kept as open space, much of it the natural ponds and streams that make up water features on the course.

Meritage executives couldn’t be reached Friday for more information on the plans. Larkhaven President Ken Jamison said regular players have been informed about the pending sale to Meritage Homes, which is dependent on approval of the rezoning. He said the golf course is planning events starting this spring to celebrate its 60th, and most likely final, year in operation.

“It just seemed like it was time,” Jamison said of the decision to sell. If the rezoning is approved, the sale likely wouldn’t close until late this year or early 2019.

The area nearby, until recently largely vacant and wooded, is undergoing a major building boom. Cresswind, an age-restricted development for senior citizens, is taking shape on the adjoining property, and will eventually include up to 850 houses. Novant Health is building a medical center adjacent to the development.

Meritage has 18 developments in and around Charlotte, from Fort Mill, S.C., to Mooresville. Their prices range from the $300,000s at Parkside in Ballantyne up to the $700,000s in the Falls at Weddington.