We wanted to bring you up to date regarding the golf course property and some developments that have occurred this week.


In May of 2009, Inwood Forest Partners (IFP) stated in court that they were negotiating with the City of Houston for all of the golf course property and clubhouse. Status conferences were held with the Judge in August and October to monitor the progress of the negotiations. At each conference, IFP noted that negotiations were continuing. In October, the Judge reminded IFP that the December trial date was approaching and set up another status conference for this past Monday, November 2, 2009.


During Monday’s conference call, IFP’s attorney noted that they had had a verbal agreement with the city, but that the city had suddenly decreased its offer and they could not accept it. At this point, the Judge said that if there was no deal, we were going to trial.


The board was not aware of any verbal agreement or any sudden changes in an offer so, we contacted Andy Icken with the City of Houston and set up at meeting for yesterday, November 5th. Mr. Icken is a Deputy Director in the Public Works Department. He is the person that is in charge of negotiating the city’s purchase of the golf course property. Mr. Icken attended and spoke at the community-wide meeting we held at Eisenhower High School in July.


During yesterday’s meeting, Mr. Icken noted that there had not been a verbal agreement with IFP and that there has not been a sudden decrease in the city’s offer. Mr. Icken said there is an offer on the table for the golf course property and clubhouse and that “the city is prepared to buy the entire tract at its appraised market value.”


Mr. Icken told us that the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) is currently doing an evaluation of the golf course property for water detention purposes. They have also hired, Dodson & Associates, Inc., water resource engineers, to do a study. As Mr. Icken noted at the meeting in July, the city and HCFCD are looking at using the golf course property to do a project similar to Keith-Wiess park. See the this link for a news release related to that park http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/pdfs/2008/Keith-WiessPark.pdf


Since IFP and the City of Houston have not reached an agreement, it appears that we will be going to trial the week of December 7th. Residents that would like to attend the trial are encouraged to do so. We will send out more information about the trial as the date gets closer and more information becomes available.