07/02/2005DOVER -- For the second year in a row, Delaware legislators have used a paragraph secretly tucked into the state's annual Bond Bill to set up the possible purchase of a golf course targeted for development.
Early Friday morning, in the waning hours of the legislative session, the House and Senate introduced and quickly passed the $834.88 million capital spending plan. The bill, which was not made public until after midnight, contains a proposal to spend up to $6 million to acquire the Deerfield Golf and Tennis Club near Newark and make it part of White Clay Creek State Park.
The club, owned by MBNA, has been for sale for possible development for housing. Officials said the state has no agreement yet to buy the property.
In a 3 a.m. news conference Friday at the close of the legislative session, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said the property would blend well with the state park on its flanks.
The Bond Bill, which finances capital construction projects and also includes funds for open-space acquisitions, provides a convenient place for legislators to insert items that are not open to public scrutiny until the last moment.
Last year, the proposed purchases of the Delaware National Country Club in New Castle County and the Garrisons Lake Golf Course in Kent County were engineered the same way, tucked into the Bond Bill, with no public discussion and emerging as a surprise in the session's dying hours.
Both were targeted by developers for housing construction that neighbors opposed because they felt it would add to road congestion and eliminate open space.
The state bought Garrisons Lake last fall and will seek public comment Thursday on whether the property should continue as a golf course, become a park or be used as open space. The Delaware National purchase is tied up in litigation.
The credit card company has been trying to sell the 145-acre property, announcing in March that it had a deal to sell it to Newark developer Jeffrey E. Lang. Lang had planned to retain the course but build houses around it.
However, MBNA later said that deal had fallen through and that it had reached a new deal to sell the tract to Penguin Industries in Coatesville, Pa., another builder. Lang says that deal also has fallen through.
"I've been talking to MBNA over the past month, told them we're still interested, but we don't know what they're going to do," Lang said.
MBNA officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
Jennifer Gochenaur, who works in natural resources conservation for the Delaware Nature Society, was one of a few people who had learned of the possible purchase before the bill was passed.
"One of the most important things in the conservation community is linking already-protected parcels, filling in the gaps and creating corridors. This is a key step in that direction," she said.
Staff reporter Michele Besso contributed to this article. Contact J.L. Miller at 678-4271 or jlmiller@delawareonline.com. Contact Patrick Jackson at 678-4274 or pjackson@delawareonline.com.