MIDLAND, Texas — It's been the talk of the town ever since it was announced - Nueva Vista Golf Club will be shutting it's doors on the 24th.
Already, many Midlanders have been asking what is next for the club and hoping that it can stay as a golf course.
However, another question being brought is in regards to the land that the club sits on.
Two years ago, the city of Midland rejected a plan to rezone the golf course as housing, instead rezoning the area as an agricultural zone.
“There’s two hundred and twenty acres behind me and a majority of the acreage was in the city and it was zoned ag[riculture]," said District Four City Councilwoman Amy Stretcher-Burkes. "There was a window pane of about twenty something acres that was not zoned, and that was in the county, so the process that happened a couple years ago, they annexed the zone and called it ag[riculture].”
Agricultural zoning is quite flexible when it comes to building new complexes.
Buildings that can be used included - among other things - parks, playgrounds, community centers, churches, cemeteries, police or fire stations and yet, even a golf course.
However, many around the city have been vocal about how they are hoping the status quo will remain.
“It’s been a golf course for over two decades, so I believe that we keep it as a green space," Stretcher-Burkes said. "I do not have any information on it, but I promised our neighbors and everybody that cares about this golf course, which is pretty much a lot of Midland."
There is still no new information regarding the status of the land or if it has been purchased.
However, if a hypothetical buyer was to have purchased the land and wanted to change that original zoning designation, they'd have to go through City Council first... and it's a bit of a process.
"Right now, we don't even know that it’s been sold. We know that it's closing on the 24th, but we don't really have much information," Stretcher-Burkes said. "If they do want to come to this city and they do want a zone change, they'll need to bring us a plat, and they'll need to come to the city for a zone change."