ATTLEBORO — Mayor Paul Heroux said his administration is looking into buying Locust Valley Golf Course, a property of about 120 acres.
The owner of the former golf course, David Bourque, closed it in July 2016 due to a lack of business.
The clubhouse was demolished and the site has been unused since.
Heroux said that he, Mass Audubon and the Attleboro Land Trust met with Bourque about a year ago to open discussions on the property.
The city along with Mass Audubon and the trust own hundreds of acres near the golf course and could someday connect to it with a trail system.
On Tuesday, during a listening session with those interested in the city’s dog park, Heroux mentioned that he’s pursuing a purchase of the property at 106 Locust St.
It’s across the street from a parcel where a developer hopes to build 45 homes.
Heroux told The Sun Chronicle in an email that the city will pay for an appraisal of the property and then attempt to buy it.
The aim is to save green space and cut back on home building.
“We are going to pay for an appraisal and then make the owner an offer,” the mayor said. “We want to avoid 200 homes being built there and protect the green space for future generations. We have been working on this for well over one year.”
Heroux has made a name for himself with a number of “green initiatives,” not the least of which was buying the 93-acre Highland Country Club for $3 million when it went bankrupt back in 2018.
If the current effort is successful, Heroux said he would push to protect the property.
“If this happens under me, I would turn it into conservation land,” he said. “There is already adjacent conservation land and Land Trust land so it would be a very large nature preserve.”
Bourque owns three other adjoining parcels bringing his total acreage to just under 139 acres on Locust Street.
It was unclear if those would be part of the sale.
The former nine-hole golf course, which is 119 1/2 acres, is valued at $1,151,800 for tax purposes, according to records on file with the assessor.
The other three parcels, which total just under 19 1/2 acres, have a combined value of $508,000, bringing the entire property to $1,659,800 for tax purposes.
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