Doral accepts Donald Trump’s preservation deal. And other golf courses could be next

Doral city commissioners held an emergency meeting Wednesday to comply with former President Donald Trump’s December deadline to accept his gift of surrendering development rights at his resort’s premiere golf course.

The unanimous vote to approve Trump’s offer of a conservation easement for the 184-acre Blue Monster course was hailed by city leaders as a historic win for open space in a municipality short on parks.

It also hands Trump a potential tax break while he continues to profit from the lucrative 18-hole course, touching on a hot topic for the 2024 presidential candidate days after a New York jury found his family business guilty of tax fraud.

READ MORE: Donald Trump offers Doral leaders a deal: preserve Blue Monster golf course forever

By accepting the easement, Doral can ban any future expansion of the Trump National resort onto the acreage currently housing the golf course. That’s been a path followed by other courses in South Florida and beyond as the popularity of the sport ebbs and demand for new development sites continues to soar.

While the Trump Organization continues to own and operate the Blue Monster, under the easement’s terms the company must grant the public some access to the walkways surrounding the course and surrenders the ability to redevelop it into anything but green space.

In a staff report endorsing the deal, Doral’s planning office noted the city needs an additional 80 acres of park space to meet recreational needs of its population estimate of roughly 81,000 people.

“I think it’s important for our residents to be able to enjoy the Blue Monster forever,” Oscar Puig-Corve, one of three sitting members of the five-seat City Council as Doral awaits the results of the Dec. 13 runoff elections.

The easement document calls for free public access on the northern and eastern edges of the Blue Monster grounds for “hiking, biking, jogging [and] bird and other wildlife observation.” The agreement also mandates that the course continue its current policy of letting the public play the course itself for a fee. That probably won’t be cheap. People who aren’t staying at the Trump resort pay from $395 to $495 per person depending on the day and time of a tee time.

The Blue Monster is one of the most famous golf courses in South Florida. It was home to a PGA Tour event until organizers moved it to Mexico City during the 2016 presidential campaign when Trump was denounced for comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants. The course’s 18th hole is at the center of Doral’s city seal.

Ed Russo, a longtime Trump consultant from Key West, said the former president wanted the easement as a legacy to his favorite pastime, golf. “The action we take today may not seem plausible for people who believe that the Trump family are singularly focused on hotels and offices,” Russo said. “However, for people who are lucky enough to know, they would know their true passion is golf.”

Russo also said the Trump Organization is ready to negotiate conservation easements for the rest of the resort’s golf acreage. “I’d like to announce I’ve been authorized to move forward with the other three golf courses,” Russo said. “It’s going to take some time. But I’ll be back.”

Because giving up development rights to a government or nonprofit is considered a charitable deduction, Trump, the resort’s owner, may be enjoying a sizable deduction on federal income taxes this year from the Doral easement.

A civil suit by New York’s attorney general against Trump and his businesses details multiple deductions Trump took from existing easements on his other properties in Florida and beyond, including a $3.5 million offset for preserving real estate in Westchester, New York, according to Bloomberg.

The suit alleges some easements used inflated appraisals to boost tax savings. Trump has criticized the suit as politically motivated and filled with false allegations.

Trump National may also get some savings on its local tax bill. In its report, the city’s planning staff said Doral should expect to lose some revenue from the resort’s $147,000 municipal tax bill.

Doral’s charter generally bars meetings by an outgoing council between the general election and when runoff winners are sworn in, but city lawyers invoked a clause allowing sessions for emergency matters to approve the easement.

While the Trump easement talks have been underway for more than a year, the company threatened to pull the potential deal if Doral didn’t approve it by mid-December. A city lawyer said the Trump Organization said a decision after the upcoming elections would be too late.

Christi Fraga, who is running for the open mayor seat and would have a council vote if she won, said she supported the easement but was baffled why Doral opted to sidestep charter rules. “Absolutely we need to protect our golf courses,” she said. “I don’t find what happened today an emergency.”

Jesse Jones, a longtime Doral resident who helped create the municipality in 2003, said activists like him would have loved to impose the kind of permanent development restrictions Trump offered the city through the easement.

“This is what we fought for,” he said. “This is a no-brainer.”