BEL–NOR — A major renovation of Normandie Golf Club here is underway after years of planning by golf, charitable and business leaders who say they want to build a top public course and community center for youths in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
The 120-acre public golf course on St. Charles Rock Road, built in 1901, is considered to be the oldest public course west of the Mississippi River. It survived an attempt years ago to turn it into housing, a proposal fiercely opposed by neighbors Bel-Nor and Greendale.
The course closed for renovation work late last year, nearly six years after civic boosters first floated the idea of the revamp.
But when residents saw workers with chainsaws cutting down mature trees on the 123-year-old course in recent days, they were alarmed. Some say too many healthy trees are being cut down without community input.
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“It took 100 years for these oak trees to mature and get as big as they are,†said Henry Skolnick, whose backyard looks out onto the course. “But it seemed like they were rushing to take them down and make it a done deal.â€
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association, which owns the course, is partnering with Beyond Housing, a community development nonprofit, on the golf course renovation, which will include a complete redesign of the existing 18-hole course, plus a new clubhouse and maintenance facility. Jack Nicklaus Design, a company founded by the legendary golfer, contributed the course design.
The group raised more than $8 million to fund the project and plan a range of youth development and job training programs, according to a letter sent to donors in December. The course, which plans to reopen to players in 2025, has partnerships with youth programs including First Tee of ºüÀêÊÓƵ, which will make the new course its headquarters, Urban Golf of ºüÀêÊÓƵ, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater ºüÀêÊÓƵ, and a girls golf program run by the U.S. Golfing Association and the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
The Association did not return requests for comment.
‘A much better asset’
The lush green spaces of the course and the nearby Lake Charles Park Cemetery have long been a source of pride for residents of Bel-Nor, a bedroom community of 1,400 residents, and Greendale, a neighboring suburb of fewer than 650 residents, along with their midcentury brick homes and the mature trees lining their streets.
“It’s nice to live this close to the city but feel like you live in the country,†said Ray Wicks, 77, a longtime Greendale resident who often starts and ends his day on his front porch overlooking the course.
But the course wasn’t always guaranteed to stay. In 1984, the club lost its lease during a dispute with then-property owner W. Harold Emerson and was nearly kicked out of the location. In 2008, Taylor-Morley Homes nearly bought the property to turn it into townhomes, a project bitterly opposed by residents.
The University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ bought the course in 2015 and leased it to Walters Golf Management for $1 a year to keep it public, but residents worried the course would eventually get developed into something else.
In 2018, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association and Beyond Housing announced plans for a $20 million renovation and finally purchased the property from UMSL in 2022 for $1.5 million. The group sent donors a letter in December saying it had removed overgrown vegetation from 21 acres and was beginning to hire subcontractors to build the course.
Bel-Nor officials will formally update residents on the project at a community meeting Monday, for the first time in nearly two years.
Mayor Bill Hook said the city has no oversight of trees on private property but that he was told by the golf course that most of the trees removed were in poor condition after decades of little maintenance.
He asked residents concerned about tree loss to be patient. The course, he said, will preserve the green space, keep it accessible to the public and support youth development in an underserved part of the region.
“Nobody wants to see a healthy tree cut down,†Hook said, “but in the long run, this is going to be a much better golf course and much better asset for our community.â€
‘Just too valuable’
Holnick, a gardening hobbyist who grows a range of fruit trees in his backyard, estimated at least 40 trees in Normandie were cut down in recent days. He figured three-fourths of them were healthy, based on the appearance of the trees’ trunks.
The trees were a habitat for wildlife including foxes, eagles and raccoons, and new trees will take decades to reach the same fullness, he said. Bel-Nor is quick to enforce lawn maintenance and building code violations on residents, Skolnick said, but he wants to see Bel-Nor and other cities adopt ordinances requiring approval to take down mature trees on private land.
“Trees are just too valuable to a community to come down for commercial interests without some kind of review,†Skolnick said. “You wouldn’t see something like this happen in Clayton or Ladue.â€
Other residents said they’re OK with losing trees as long as they can keep the golf course, rather than see it turn into housing or commercial development.
John Holmes, whose backyard looks over the course, said he was more surprised by the lack of communication about the project from the course or Bel-Nor officials.
“It’s been a year of mostly silence,†said Holmes, who attended one community meeting on the project in Greendale in 2022. “People just want to know what is next.â€
Rita Boone, 66, said she gasped when she saw just how many trees were cut down in recent days. But she’d rather have a golf course with fewer trees than buildings.
“They could cut down all the trees as far as I as I’m concerned, rather than that,†said Boone, whose backyard neighbors the course.
Wicks, who lives across from the course, said enough trees were cut down that he sees lights on St. Charles Rock Road that he was never able to see before.
But many trees were old and would lose limbs during storms, he said. He’s glad the renovation is finally starting.
“It’s always been an underrated asset to the community, and I hope it will be around another 100 years,†Wicks said. “So often, North County is just written off.â€