Feds File Suit Against The Bear's Club Over Wetlands
/Andy Reid reports that the Department of Justice has filed suit against Jack Nicklaus' exclusive Jupiter golf course, The Bear's Club, for filling in wetlands to make more room for tees and fairways.
The U.S. Department of Justice in October filed a lawsuit arguing that golf course builders filled in wetlands near the 15th hole that were meant to be protected.
Now The Bear's Club, in a motion to dismiss the case, counters that it had the state's OK to ch
ange the property and that it already paid $140,000 to protect wetlands elsewhere as compensation.
"These are two minor alterations to the golf course," said Eugene Sterns, attorney for The Bear's Club. "The federal government should have better things to do than fool around with this nonsense."
And there was this...
That enabled moving a tee box and expanding the fairway near the 15th hole, according to court filings.
The federal government in 2010 learned about the additional filled-in land. The filing of the lawsuit comes as the statute of limitations was due to expire, Sterns said.
The motion to dismiss the lawsuit argues that the land involved was under state jurisdiction and that "the appropriate State agency authorized the very work the (Army Corps of Engineers) alleges was unlawfully undertaken."
Let's hope this change was prompted by the ball going too far. Mr. Nicklaus can make a federal case out of it.
