After being closed 8 years, Cherry Creek Golf Course will become Hempfield's latest housing development

When Stephanie Patterson moved to the Cherry Creek neighborhood in Hempfield with her husband, Gary, in 2001, the two avid golfers were drawn to the idea of walking out of their back door and onto a golf course.

They purchased a golf cart, took nightly walks on the course and watched their five grandchildren practice putting on summer days, Patterson said.

“We would go down, and they’d putt for quarters,” she said. “They always enjoyed that.”

But those daily rituals came to an end in 2015, when the Cherry Creek Golf Course closed after a year of ownership by Mark Allison.

The course, near Westmoreland County Community College, opened in the mid-1990s and featured Birdies Grill and Sports Pub.

In January 2015, it was renamed Scenic Links of Westmoreland and sold to Allison for $1.35 million. The course closed about nine months later because of significant losses, he said. Allison planned to keep the restaurant open, but it closed in December 2016 after a failed attempt at a zoning change.

Hempfield supervisors voted in March 2022 to change the property’s zoning from agricultural — which was required for the golf course — to suburban residential.

The plan is to develop the property for a plot of homes to be called Spyglass Trails.

Braddock-based MSD Cherry Creek LLC purchased the property from A&C Property Holdings LLC, of which Allison was the sole member and manager, for about $1.75 million. Ryan Homes was contracted to install 165 single-family houses and 62 duplex homes, walking trails, a community center and pickleball courts on the 110-acre property.

The cost of the homes and the potential tax revenue for the township has yet to be determined, said Michael Kohowski, the general manager for Ryan Homes.

‘Life goes on’

For Jeff Toffolo, losing the golf course was the worst of it.

“(The golf course) was convenient. It was a nice view,” said Toffolo, who has lived in Cherry Creek for 24 years with his wife, Debbie. “We looked out across here and saw all of the golf course and everything.”

But after a year, life went back to normal for the Toffolos.

“We accepted the fact that life goes on and changes happen,” Debbie Toffolo said.

Despite the early-morning construction noise and occasional dust on the front porch, the development has not been much of a bother, Debbie Toffolo said.

“It hasn’t affected us as much as some of the people around the bend,” she said, referring to neighbors up the street who live along the edge of the former golf course property.

Neighbors said they are concerned about increased traffic near Cherry Creek upon installation of the homes, Debbie Toffolo said.

“It’s kind of a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude. We’ll just wait and see what happens,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll just deal with it, whatever happens.”

Cherry Creek homeowners’ association president Kelly Genard welcomes the change.

“I’m fine with it, because it was an empty golf course, an overgrown golf course. We have vermin, we had coyote,” Genard said. “I would rather see new homes go in than see it turn into what it was turning into.”

Genard moved to Cherry Creek 11 years ago to live in a ranch-style home. Genard does not golf, so the nearby course was not a selling point, she said. But she sympathizes with those who were drawn to the golf course community lifestyle.

“It is a shame because there was a restaurant and everything tied to it, which was very nice,” Genard said.

The homeowners’ association has held several meetings to provide updates on the construction, she said. About 40 of the 136 families in the association attended the most recent meeting.

‘Above and beyond’

The site has been cleared, and most of the earthwork for phase one of the three-part development is completed, said Michael Kohowski, the general manager for Ryan Homes. Sanitary and storm sewer pipes are being installed.

“Once that is complete and the weather cooperates and gets warmer, then the pavement will commence,” he said.

The timeline for the project is up in the air, Kohowski said. The second phase of the development will begin once the homes in the first phase enter the market.

“We’re very excited about the community,” he said. “It’s going to do very well in the township, but there’s no set time when we want to be finished.”

The property’s former clubhouse, golf cart storage building and pavilion were torn down about a month ago, Patterson said.

“The workers are pretty good about telling us the things that are going on and everything,” Patterson said. “And they’re careful around the property … It’s just disheartening because it was so beautiful out there.”

It was hard to see the greenery of the golf course go, Debbie said.

“It really bothered me to see all the trees cut down and the land cleared because I love nature, and I love all the trees,” she said.

Spyglass Trails will not be without greenery, said Hempfield Planning and Zoning Director Patrick Karnash.

“They’re leaving quite a few of the pre-existing golf cart paths in the community as walking paths,” Karnash said. “They’ve gone above and beyond in achieving the township’s need for greenspace.”

Preserving greenspace and expanding sidewalks and trails are some of the goals outlined in the township’s 10- to 15-year comprehensive plan, approved by the supervisors in September. Other goals of the plan include improving township signage, removing blighted property, developing available land on Route 30 and evaluating the quality of municipal services.

“They’ve been a good partner so far,” Karnash said, “and they’re really making good moves into making that property in the way that our comprehensive plan suggests we should be moving.”