Canopy Atlanta asked over 100 Norcross community members about the journalism they needed. This story emerged from that feedback.
Canopy Atlanta also trains and pays community members, our Fellows, to learn reporting skills to better serve their community. Gellela Belachew, a Canopy Atlanta Fellow, contributed research to this story.
The rolling hills of Heritage Golf Links, a suburban public golf course, engulf Burns Lake, a 20-acre body of water whose streams flow to Jackson Creek, Sweetwater Creek and the Yellow River. Otters have been photographed at the lake, frolicking on the shore. Dogwood, pine, magnolia, sweetgum, redbud, and a variety of oak trees dot the property.
For the second time in four years, Heritage Golf Links owners are trying to sell a portion of the suburban golf course to a residential developer.
For the second time in four years, residents are objecting because they’d rather see the land remain a greenspace. Where a residential developer sees available, open greenspace on which to build, residents envision a cheaply-built, congested traffic nightmare.
Kirk Hines is a resident and registered horticultural therapist. Along with nearly 700 others, he signed a 2023 petition (which was available in Spanish and Vietnamese) to keep Heritage Golf Links from being developed. His first choice is for the golf course to remain greenspace tied to Lucky Shoals Park.
He’s observed a herd of deer, a pack of coyotes, native water birds like cranes and Osprey, as well as falcons, fish, reptiles, and mollusks at the property. The proposed changes, including the threats to wildlife, have “increased the anxiety level of everybody in the vicinity,” he says. “You’re weighing, ‘Is this something I want to deal with? Is this something I want to live with?’”
Heritage Golf Links is a 27-hole golf course that straddles two towns and two counties. The main hub—situated inside the DeKalb County line, nestled into Tucker’s Lake Ivanhoe and Lashley Acres neighborhoods—features the 18-hole Legacy and Heritage courses and a clubhouse with a pro shop and restaurant.
Connected by a golf cart bridge is the nine-hole Tradition course, located across Old Norcross-Tucker Road in Gwinnett County’s unincorporated Norcross. Nesbit Elementary School borders the course to the south, and Lucky Shoals Park to the east. Across from the entrance, a small development of brown and beige cluster homes mirror each other.
Hines lives in an older subdivision near the course, split between Gwinnett and DeKalb counties. He can see the Tradition course from his backyard.
“We’re primarily single family homes, but there are a lot of apartment complexes in the area, and there’s a lot of people that live in those apartments that access Lucky Shoals Park,” he says. “That’s exactly the kind of space that apartment dwellers, or people who may not have that large backyard or somewhere to get out to walk and play, have access.”
It’s the nine-hole Tradition course that’s pending sale with developer Jim Jacobi, president and founder of developer Parkland Communities and build-to-rent firm Parkland Residential. Jacobi’s current plan is to build 230 residential units on the land at Britt Road and Old Norcross-Tucker Road.
Jacobi declined to discuss the plan’s timeline with Canopy Atlanta, saying, “Thank you for your offer but we are not interested at this time.” Residents’ understanding, though, is that the sale of the Tradition course will help pay for a renovation of the Legacy and Heritage courses.
Heritage Golf Links did not respond to Canopy Atlanta’s multiple requests for comment.
About 150 people, including Gwinnett County Commissioner Ben Ku, attended Jacobi’s first community meeting on July 1, 2023. Even on a holiday weekend they spilled out of the room, lining the hallways of the Lucky Shoals Park community center. Most opposed the plan.
Since then, Jacobi has held community meetings on Dec. 13, 2023, and Jan. 10, 2024, with between 50 and 100 attendees. He has altered his plan for Heritage Golf Links each time. Plans for build-to-rent communities got scrapped, although Parkland sold off two properties in December 2023 claiming the sale would allow for the developer to focus on build-to-rent, and therefore “meet the critical need for quality housing in metro Atlanta.” (Jacobi has not yet submitted a rezoning application to Gwinnett County, but his record is solid: Gwinnett has previously approved several of his high-density residential projects.)
Market data shows that one-third of residents in Gwinnett County are, in fact, renting—and the demand for rental units is rising. According to the Gwinnett 2045 Unified Plan, which outlines the county’s intentions for future development over the next two decades, age is a factor in who decides to rent. From 2016 to 2021, the number of households opting for rental properties increased 2,700 (11 percent) among adults age 35 and older.
But residents nearby Heritage Golf Links wonder if the plan Jacobi will present will ultimately be viable for their community.
At one community meeting, Jacobi discussed a Parkland townhome development called Sweetwater Springs on Duluth Highway in Lawrenceville. According to neighbor Sarah Overs—who, with Hines, is part of a steering committee representing the needs of residents surrounding Heritage Golf Links—this was to propose a compromise for the property.
“The reason why Jacobi brought up Sweetwater Springs was at the end of the last public meeting where folks walked out in frustration of nothing new,” Overs says by email. “He tried to save the meeting with the remaining folks to float the idea of, if you want greenspace, he would do high-density rentals on one portion of the property and keep greenspace on another.”
Overs is part of the opposition that is pushing for units to be for sale, not for rent. She says that the proposed small units and inferior building materials won’t be comparable to single-family homes in the area.
Walking through Lucky Shoals Park on a warm February day, Overs described her neighbors as diverse, hailing from many different countries.
“I really think for this end of town, we need something community-minded,” Overs says, suggesting an active, age 55+, senior living neighborhood with ranch-style homes, which would accommodate people like Overs, who is both single and over 55.
There are 17,642 households in unincorporated Norcross, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The group says, “Aging commercial buildings zoned for industrial use and increased traffic have led to poor air quality and chronic health conditions” in the area.
Jeff Cleveland, a member of the Gwinnett County Development Advisory Committee, lives near Heritage Golf Links. He says that adding a dense housing development will put even more of a strain on the current traffic issues and infrastructure, like the power grid and the sewage system.
Compared to the power grid at the Walmart Supercenter two miles away, “if Mother Nature sneezes, the power goes out in Smoketree and in Sanford’s Walk,” Cleveland says. “But you know, they got a new grid when they put that Walmart superstore over there . . the power never goes out there. So not only are we looking at some significant changes in infrastructure here—sewage, the grid, the streets are two-lane roads on both sides—they’re not accommodating for a whole lot of density.”
In 2022, construction began to remove one travel lane from the stretch of Chamblee Tucker Road from Lavista Road to Tucker Norcross Road. “I already contend with road noise, and Old Norcross has gotten friskier over the years,” Hines says. “The Chamblee Tucker road diet is bringing a lot more traffic onto Britt Road and Old Norcross, just as we’d feared.”
In December 2023, State Rep. Marvin Lim, who also is the founder and CEO of the Lucky Shoals Community Association, submitted a 19,000-word essay to the Environmental Protection Agency to secure $19 million dollars to preserve greenspace, including the likes of Heritage Golf Links.
While Parkland is based in Atlanta, Rep. Lim wrote, “No developers are truly local—either locally owned, locally operated with [neighborhood] employees, or even located with its principal place of business in the community.
“A major complaint in this community is that non-local developers routinely seek to convert existing lots consistent with greenspace into institutionally/private equity owned, high-density housing developments which are not well constructed, clean/green, or affordable considering the community’s median income,” Rep. Lim wrote.
“The local community does not desire or need these types of developments, which bring the community few jobs or economic benefit while environmentally burdening it. These developments can drive long-time members out of the community.”
Cleveland doubts that the golf course will remain a greenspace. He maintains, though, that whatever is built “needs to be more in line with the community and lifestyle that’s here.”
In 2020, yet another developer, before Lennar Homes, was under contract withdrew its application to build hundreds of housing units on the property. Residents pushed back, installing signs along Heritage Golf Links that read, “No to Lennar, yes to greenspace.”
Those same signs have since been repurposed, to now say “No to Parkland, yes to greenspace.”
Residents like Overs and Hines, who have been fighting the development of Heritage Golf Links, do not believe Parkland Communities is offering high-quality housing nor amenities that would attract like-minded, community-driven folks.
Overs wants the community and developer to work together to create something more palatable. Dense residential developments, like what Parkland proposes, “need to be in walkable communities.”
On March 7, Parkland reconvened with Hines, Overs, and the other members of the steering committee, including Commissioner Ben Ku, at the Lucky Shoals Park community center.
Next, Parkland will schedule another meeting with the community at large, as required before submitting an application for rezoning.
Hines wants to protect his scenic view, as well as the animals that made the golf course and lake their home.
“With the development of the space, there’s increased traffic, there’s increased noise, there’s decreased green, and that impacts our quality of life,” he says. “Green is the most soothing color that registers on our brains . . . It’s something that we’re hardwired to respond to. Accessing nature decreases anxiety and symptoms related to depression. Having those open spaces that people can go out into is critical.”
Editor: Christina Lee
Fact Checker: Adjoa D. Danso
Canopy Atlanta Reader: Ada Wood
