Who Owns the Fairway Behind a Palm Beach Polo Home, and What Florida's New Infill Law Lets Them Do With It

"Look out back. That is what I wanted, that is what I bought." Polo West Estates resident Angela Lacy told the Town-Crier this in 2020, pointing at a mowed fairway on a golf course that had already been closed for years. She was describing the thing a golf-view buyer pays for. What she bought was the view. The fairway itself belonged to someone else.

Six years later, that gap has a statute attached to it. In May 2026 Florida enacted the Infill Redevelopment Act, SB 1434. The law does not stop former golf land from becoming housing. What it does is give the homeowners around that land a short window to buy it, at a price tied to what the developer paid. For anyone pricing a home on old Palm Beach Polo golf ground, that price now caps what the open space is worth.

Two former courses, two new owners, one quiet year

Palm Beach Polo & Country Club once had three 18-hole golf courses. The North course closed in 1999, the Dunes in 2018 and Polo West in 2019. Two of those properties changed direction in 2026.

The roughly 150-acre Polo West course sits on the west side of South Shore Boulevard, between Big Blue Trace and Greenview Shores Boulevard. It was built in the 1980s as Greenview Cove Golf Course, the centerpiece of a planned residential golf community. Glenn Straub bought it in 2003. Dr. Scott Swerdlin, founder of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, bought it from him in 2019 for $16 million, and Straub took it back when that project stalled. In 2017 the Wellington Village Council rejected Straub's proposed changes to the property, and a 2022 plan for 125 homes never got through the Village process.

Miami-based BH Group then bought the site for $20.8 million, after suing Straub's company, Wellington Equestrian Estates LLC, and settling in May. BH has announced plans for a luxury single-family community there. Its representatives have given Wellington Planning, Zoning & Building Director Tim Stillings documents laying out how the property meets the criteria in SB 1434. That makes the statute, not the Council, the thing to read.

The tests a fairway has to pass

The Town-Crier reported that a project built under the Act would likely skip the Village's full public hearing process. Village staff would still check it against local development standards and the statute. Under the enrolled bill text, a parcel qualifies only if it clears every one of these tests:

1. It is at least 5 acres.
2. It is "environmentally impacted." That means Phase II site assessment work found a contaminant above residential cleanup target levels, or some part of the parcel is in a designated brownfield area.
3. It sits next to land in the same jurisdiction that is zoned residential as of right.
4. It is in a county with more than 1.475 million people and at least 15 municipalities.
5. It is not designated agricultural land, public park land, land outside an urban growth boundary, land near a military installation, or land a public utility has owned in the 15-year lookback period.

According to the Senate's own analysis, only Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties met the population and municipality thresholds. Being a closed golf course does not qualify land by itself. The environmental test decides it. No Phase II results or brownfield designation for Polo West have been reported, so for now eligibility is something BH asserts, not an established fact.

If a parcel does qualify, the local government has to allow residential use. Density is capped at whichever is lower: the average density of the adjacent as-of-right residential zoning districts, or 25 units per acre. A compliant project "must be administratively approved, and no further action by the governing body of a local government is required." Because of that density rule, the neighboring lots set the ceiling for what gets built next to them. Any home count for the site therefore depends on the zoning density of Polo West Estates, which buyers would need to confirm from Village records. The 125-home figure came from a former owner's 2022 plan, not from BH.

The clause that puts a price on the view

Subsection 8 of the Act is where golf-view value gets a dollar figure. It applies when a qualifying parcel includes former recreational facilities, a term the statute defines to include golf courses, and those areas border single-family homes on all sides. In that case the developer must:

• show the facilities have been out of use for at least 12 consecutive months,
• pay double the usual parks or recreational impact fee, and
• send every adjacent owner a certified-mail notice offering to sell them the recreational land, along with the price.

To use that option, the neighbors have to exercise it, close, and either accept a deed restriction or record a restrictive covenant keeping the land as a recreational area or open space for at least 30 years, all within 90 days of the notice being mailed. The price cannot exceed the greater of what the owner paid plus 10 percent, or a bona fide offer the owner received in the last 12 months.

The Town-Crier has described Polo West Estates as surrounding the course, and the course stopped operating as golf years ago. Here is how the price formula would work there:

The second row matters. On August 6, 2026, the South Florida Business Journal ran a headline saying GL Homes has Polo West under contract. The article is paywalled, and the parties and terms could not be confirmed. The Real Deal's August 24 coverage still described BH as planning the community. Under the statute, a bona fide offer above the purchase price plus 10 percent becomes the neighbors' ceiling. Every new deal on the land can raise the cost of keeping it open.

This changes how a buyer should value a home on that perimeter. The view is worth whatever the owners around it could raise and close on within 90 days, divided by however many of them take part. A single homeowner's share of a $22.9 million purchase depends on how many neighbors join, and the statute does not say how adjacent owners who disagree divide the obligation.

The paving bill that held up a closing

The access road shows how closely the course and its neighbors are tied together. On August 11, 2026, Wellington Equestrian Estates sued the Polo West Estates Homeowners Association in Palm Beach County circuit court, according to Boca Post. The dispute is over the drive running from South Shore Boulevard to the community's guard gate. The company's rights to that road come from a recorded easement agreement dated May 27, 2004, and the complaint says the agreement makes the golf course owner responsible for paving the drive.

The complaint says the association paved the drive in 2025 and then billed the course owner $60,795, based on a Ranger Construction Industries invoice that totaled $461,721 across all the work. It alleges the association would not issue a clean estoppel certificate for the May 26, 2026 sale to BH Polo West, LLC until that amount was paid, and that the company paid so the sale could close. These are allegations in a newly filed case and have not been proven.

For a home buyer, the case shows where the real terms are written. Road maintenance, gate access and payment duties between the open land and the homes around it all sit in recorded easements and association documents. An estoppel certificate can become a sticking point at closing. Those documents will govern the land through any redevelopment, so a buyer should read them before deciding what the view is worth.

A fairway that stays golf

The other former Palm Beach Polo course is going a different way. Golf architect David McLay Kidd has designed an 18-hole course for The Wellington, a private club community run by Wellington Lifestyle Partners. It covers 136 acres, with construction expected to start in March 2027 and play to begin by December 2028. Kidd said the property "began life as one of the three golf courses in the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club." The plan stays mostly within the existing golf corridors and reshapes holes six through ten around a new par three. The surrounding plan includes 253 residences and a Marketplace with an 80-room boutique hotel.

Here, golf survives because its owner made it the center of a club community. That is a business decision, not a legal protection. Whether a view across Wellington's former club land lasts depends on what the owner plans to do with the land, and the statute's purchase window only applies where the homes nearby surround it.

FAQ

Does SB 1434 make every closed golf course in Palm Beach County buildable? No. A parcel must be environmentally impacted under the statute's Phase II or brownfield definition and must meet the adjacency and exclusion tests. A course that has closed qualifies only if it passes all of them.

Does the Village of Wellington still review a qualifying project? Staff review stays in place. The Act requires administrative approval of a compliant project without action by the governing body. It allows architectural review that applies to comparable housing generally, and the developer must still meet concurrency requirements.

Is Polo West inside the Palm Beach Polo gates? Public reporting describes Polo West Estates as having its own guard gate off South Shore Boulevard, reached by an access drive covered by a 2004 easement. Buyers should confirm the community's exact boundaries and association membership from the recorded documents.

Who decides how neighbors split the purchase price? The statute does not say. Anyone weighing that question should get advice from a Florida real estate attorney before a notice arrives, because the 90-day clock runs from the date it is mailed.

If you are weighing a home whose value depends on the land behind it, Martha's Properties can help you pull the easements, association records and ownership history before you write an offer. Request Private Listing Access & Consultation for a discreet look at Wellington's former club land and the properties that border it.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.