Bulldozers and backhoes work the grounds of The Little Club as part of the remake of the property. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Just as road and drainage construction winds down in Gulf Stream’s Core area, members-only The Little Club has torn up its golf course in a major restoration of its tee boxes, fairways and greens.
At the opposite, south end of town, the Gulf Stream Golf Club is launching a redo of its clubhouse.
The Little Club golf course was constructed in 1968, according to documents filed with Gulf Stream and with the South Florida Water Management District.
Changes are being made to its drainage, which consists of interconnected lakes that convey runoff to the northwest corner of the golf course, where two pumps discharge water to the Intracoastal Waterway.
The club plans to excavate 0.93 acres of new lake and fill 0.77 acres of existing lake for a net increase of 0.16 acres of lake. Minor changes will be made to the existing grading of the golf course to facilitate better drainage collection and runoff, the documents said.
The town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board approved a landscaping plan in late March to let The Little Club clear the land and remove 36 trees from within 100 feet of its property boundaries. They will be replaced with 74 new trees: specifically 21 green buttonwoods, 11 silver buttonwoods, four date palms, 13 royal palms and 25 sabal palms. Additionally, 35 trees will be transplanted, while 159 will stay where they are.
“Tree health, invasive species, proposed site grading, golf course layout adjustments, and maintenance concerns are the primary reasons why trees are being removed or transplanted,” landscape architect Aaron Elswick wrote in the club’s ARPB application.
As for the Gulf Stream Golf Club, work is planned for the southeast corner of its 102-year-old, Addison Mizner-designed clubhouse after Town Commission approval of a small modification on May 8.
The commission first approved the golf club’s plan in June 2023.
“We’re increasing the setback from the ocean. … We’re actually reducing the square footage of the addition, but we’re bringing that addition a little bit further north,” club attorney Jamie Gavigan said.
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