- June 21, 2025
Though the city of Ormond Beach is proceeding with finding other uses for the former Riverbend Golf Course next to the airport — one such use being a 67-acre park with running and biking trails — some Ormond Beach residents remain adamant: the property should be reverted back to a golf course.
The Ormond Beach City Commission was set to approve via its consent agenda for its meeting on Tuesday, May 20, a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration containing conceptual designs for the former 172-acre golf course property. The letter asked the federal agency to review the proposed land use concepts for approval. In addition to a park, proposed for land southeast of the airport next to the Tomoka River, the city is seeking approval to add hangars, fixed-base operator facilities and commercial office space to the 58-acres where the golf course clubhouse was previously located.
The last golf course parcel, a 94-acre tract of land between the airport and the Bear Creek community, would remain undeveloped for now, with a potential for additional aviation uses in the future, according to the letter.
However, residents who spoke at the meeting largely echoed the same sentiments: They want Riverbend Golf Course back, and they don't want further development at the airport.
"Reopening the golf course would create only income and no expenses for the city," Bear Creek resident Patricia Franzen said. "Senior adults have no recreation in the city of Ormond Beach. We need your help. There are far more voters who golf than fly out of the airport."
The Riverbend Golf Course first opened in 1991. It was operated by a private lessee until December 2020 when its last operator, Riverbend Management Group, filed for bankruptcy. In January 2021, the city asked the FAA whether the property could remain a golf course, but in light of the runway extension that was being considered at the time, the FAA responded that it seemed "counter intuitive" for the city to reassign the golf course lease, according to a letter to Airport Manager Steve Lichliter.
Now that the runway extension isn't happening, Ormond Beach City Commissioners seek a concrete answer from the FAA — can it be a golf course, or not?
And if it can, is there an interest for an operator to take over and perform the needed repairs to the property?
Commissioners voted to send the original letter to the FAA, but add a section to inquire specifically about a golf course, though they expressed doubt on whether an operator would want to take over.
"I like the idea of a private entity coming in and taking the golf course and putting it back to what it once was," Commissioner Harold Briley said. "I don't think the reality is we'll find anybody who's willing to spend that kind of money and not own the property, because they'll still have to pay the city a lease. No one's going to spend $8-10 million to renovate the old golf course and not have ownership of it."
It's unfortunate that the golf course became abandoned, Briley said, but the lessee was no longer paying the lease to the city or paying property taxes to the county. Since 2018, the city of Ormond Beach has been in a dispute with the Volusia County Property Appraiser over $240,848 of unpaid taxes, which date back to 2013.
The city argues that the property was tax exempt, and the property appraiser counters that it lost the exemption when it leased it to a for-profit company. However, tax notices, the city attorney told the Observer in 2022, were sent to the golf course, and not the city.
The new proposed uses have been in the works for a year. The city held a workshop in May 2024 where the past commission reached a consensus on the park, commercial aviation area and undeveloped green space.
Commissioner Travis Sargent said he asked the city two years ago to put out a request for bids to see if an operator was interested in the golf course. But, he's not willing to have the taxpayers subsidize the golf course, or have the city spend millions of dollars to repair the facility.
"With this golf course, we are asking someone to invest, or the taxpayers to invest, in the property and someone take it over and they don't own it," Sargent said. "And the city of Ormond Beach does not set what that lease would be. The FAA sets that and that price is roughly upwards of $100,000 a year."
