About Carl Junction's Briarbrook

I received this neighborhood letter from the Briarbrook Community Improvement District (BCID). It's full of great information about the latest happenings at the Briarbrook Clubhouse and the Golf Course Tournament Schedule for 2012!

Dear Briarbrook Friends,

Amazing is the word many of you have said when discussing 2011 here at Briarbrook. Just one year ago, the Briarbrook Community Improvement District (BCID) took possession of the facility and now we have a restaurant & bar, remodeled swimming pool, remodeled clubhouse, and a wonderful golf course. 2012 is going to be very exciting for the community. Café on the Green is very excited to be the restaurant of the BCID and for the upcoming golf season. Their staff has enjoyed getting to know all of you. The workout room is now under construction and should be completed soon.

We are also replacing the cart path on #4 immediately and more replacement is coming this spring! Work on #4 cart path will begin on Monday January 30th. This will be a major aesthetic transformation for the hole. I am excited to see the finished result once we can complete the finish work with sod. Unfortunately, the hole must be closed during construction of the new path. Please be patient with the construction crew as it could take up to two weeks to complete if the weather cooperates. By skipping the hole, everyone can just take a par on the hole and move on to #5 or just come back around and play #1 again after hole 18. Remember all private cart trail fees go directly into the cart path replacement fund and come spring time, with the remaining balance from 2011 and 2012 renewals, we will be able to get a good amount of paths replaced.

I am beyond words for describing the changes that have occurred and am very excited about the future of our community facility. I think everyone is proud of Briarbrook and excited to spread the word to our friends. This is a great family facility and an incredible value.

Good News!!! The 2012 rates will remain the same as 2011. The annual memberships will still be available for a discount if paid up front. Monthly payments are an option but ACH (automatic payment) through a checking or savings account will be required. Both locker rooms now have very nice showers for your use. The locker rooms are complete and lockers are now available for rent. There are several lockers that have been in use but we don’t have record of who is using them, nor do we have an extra key. Please inform us if you have a locker and whether you want to keep it for this year. We need to know this by 3/1/12 or we will be forced to replace the locks and remove the contents in the lockers. The locker fees will help fund towels and shampoo/soap. The towels will be for locker room use only and not for golf course use.

Briarbrook has also added more events for 2012. Some events require shotgun start and some just call for you to sign up and play anytime during that day with whomever you want and the results will post the next day. Below is a list of tournaments Briarbrook will be hosting. These events are open to the public but members will receive a discount.

• March 17, 2012 Modified Stableford: This is a points-based format similar to the former PGA International tour event. This will have a minimal entry fee and as long as you play with someone else that is signed up for the event, you can play anytime throughout the day with any group you want. This way, the course doesn’t get shut down for a shotgun start but still offers an event for all to participate.
• April 7, 2012 Green & Grow 9:00 Shotgun Two-Person Scramble
• April 14 & 15, 2012 Hall of Fame Tee Times Briarbrook & Twin Hills
• April 28 & 29, 2012 City Qualifying Tee Times
• May 5, 2012 City Championship-BB Tee Times
• May 15, 2012 Ladies Nutcracker 9:00 Shotgun 2-Lady Member Guest
• May 17, 2012 Senior Scramble 8:30 Shotgun Two-Person Scramble
• May 28, 2012 Memorial Day Couples Scramble 8:00 Shotgun 4-person teams. Pro Shop will pair teams.
• June 8 thru 10, 2012 Briarbrook Invitational Tee-Times 54-Hole Stroke Play
• July 4, 2012 Scramble 8:00 Shotgun 4-person Scramble. Pro Shop will pair teams.
• July 21 & 22, 2012 Beauty & Beast 7:30/1:00 Shotgun 4-person teams
• August 4 & 5, 2012 Horton Smith / Ky Laffoon Qual. Tee Times.
• August 11 & 12, 2012 Donneybrook (Member-Guest) 9:00 Shotgun 2-person Scramble
• August 18 & 19, 2012 Horton Smith / Ky Laffoon Matches. Tee Times.
• September 3, 2012 Labor Day Couples Scramble 8:00 Shotgun 2-person Team. Make Your Own Pairing with Another Couple.
• September 15 & 16, 2011 Club Championship. Tee Times.
• October 13, 2012 Falling Leaves (27-Holes) 9:00 Shotgun 3-person Teams

I hope these new and different formats will entice more golfers to participate. The formats are designed to get to know more of our Briarbrook family with some geared toward building relationships with people you haven’t played with before while others are designed to play with your best friends. We have had a warmer-than-normal winter but I know we are all ready for the spring and summer temperatures. I am so thrilled and proud of the progress the facility has made in such a short amount of time. Thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing you soon.
Jacob Hosp

I too am impressed with all the new updates at the club house. Several times a month my husband and I frequent The Cafe on the Green for their wonderful chicken nachos and some great conversation. Don't forget that the Restaurant & Bar is open to the public and runs amazing specials. Come and see for yourself on Saturday February 11th for their Pre-Valentines Day Party Starting at 6:30. The will have an amazing buffet, great drink specials and the The Geritol Five will be playing from 7:30 - 10:30.

If this sounds like a great place to live, it's because it is. I've been a resident of Carl Junction for over 11 years and have truly enjoyed all Carl Junction has to offer. See what Carl Junction Homes are available and become a part of this great community.

Audrey Preston

We had a great turnout for the Planning and Zoning meeting last night. I wish we saw even a fraction of this sort of turnout for everything that impacts the city. Unfortunately we just didn't have enough room for every one that wanted to be in the meeting so it was decided that we wouldn't take any action on the proposed rezoning last night but would see if we could make arrangements to hold a meeting at the school auditorium so everyone that's interested can hear and be heard.

I did want to take a moment to give the preface to the public hearing that I was going to give last night and will give again before we conduct the public hearing at the next meeting. Currently the property in question is zoned C-2 which means that the owner, without input or permission from anyone else, can build anything from a single family residence to an apartment building to a car lot and anything in between. So long as they apply for the proper building permits and follow the building codes the City cannot forbid them the right to build what they want ont he land they own anymore than any other landowner. Rezoning to R-2 would actually restrict what can be built on the land to only single family or two family residences. This is all that the Planning and Zoning Commission can hear or consider. This is not a meeting or a decision about the proposed project. We want everyone that wants to talk about the merits of rezoning or not rezoning the property to be heard but the comments should be limited to the merits of changing or not changing the zoning, not about the proposed project.The proper place to give opinion for or against the project is at whatever public meeting the MHDC holds concerning the issuance of the tax credits sought byt the developer to finance the project.

I personally think the City Council made a grave mistake and sent a very bad message to other developers that may be looking at Carl Junction when they rescinded their support for the proposed project but at the end of the day that is all the City can do to dissuade the developer from doing what he is proposing to do. There is nothing to stop the developer from going through with what they want to do as the land is currently zoned.

I had in a Council meeting a couple of months ago, outlined the fall in the real estate market in Briarbrook over the last several years, espcially in new construction. I decided to go back and have a look to see what ground, if any, we've made up since the CID was approved and what I found was this.

New Construction - Not much to create a judgement on here yet. While the 1st permit for new construction wasn't issued last year for Briarbrook until June there have been 2 new ones this year already. The first was in January and the second was in March so not a lot there to build a trend on.

Existing Sales - Here we can see something. For the two year period between 3/1/2008 and 3/1/2010 80 homes sold in Briarbrook or 3.3 homes per month. Since 3/1/2010 there have been 20 homes sold for an average of 8 homes per month for a 41.25% increase in sales. One might try to argue that this was due to the tax credits ending but we had the same type rush in October and November of 2009 and there were tax credits available to be taken advantage of for all of 2008 and 2009 so that's not a great arguement.

Only time will tell for sure but at the moment, the approval of the CID appears to have had the intended and hoped for consequence, the real estate market in Carl Junction and in Briarbrook in particular is improving.

Man am I glad that this week's City Council meeting in Carl Junction is over. This whole CID thing has gone way beyond the bizarre. I couldn't believe what I was hearing tonight when a citizen got up and compared the City Council's consideration of the CID ordinance to what is happening in Washington with the Democrats pushing a healthcare bill through that a majority of the people don't want. The fact of the matter is that this is exactly what the opposition has been doing. Consider for a moment if you will. The vote on a bond to purchase the Briarbrook property last April was just that, a vote to authorize the City to borrow money so it could purchase the property. It was at no time listed or advertised as a vote on Briarbrook itself. However since the opposition has wanted to use it in that context let's do so. The fact is that a majority of the citizens of Carl Junction and an overwhelming majority of those in Ward 3 (the Briarbrook area) voted in FAVOR of the proposed bond. Since then a majority of Ward 3 have signed a petition asking for the formation of the CID. Yet the opposition has wanted the council to disregard the will of the people of Ward 3 in favor of their position and when that hasn't happen they have tried just about every childish trick imaginable. The same person who addressed the Council on at least 2 occasions complaining about how she was being treated so badly by her neighbors through all this had the nerve to cross examine the City Clerk and treat her very badly in a public setting. It was shameful according to reports and tonight we're told how she has been putting so much pressure on neighbors that they didn't want her to know if they signed the petition or not.

The people of Ward 3 as a majority wanted this to happen. The ordinance is now passed. Let it lie or help make it work. Quit being such a sore loser. It's not very becoming.