Silverstone Golf Club owners ordered to restore property

A federal judge has ordered Silverstone Golf Club's new owners to roll back the clock, issuing a preliminary injunction forcing a California-based company to restore the mothballed property "as if they had continuously watered and maintained" the course after it was sold and shuttered on Sept. 1.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Boulware on Tuesday ruled Silverstone-area homeowners suffered irreparable harm after Desert Lifestyles LLC took over the property, which he found the company failed to maintain and water, despite a Clark County District Court order.

Boulware's ruling favored attorneys for nearby homeowners, who argued in court that Desert Lifestyles willfully neglected Silverstone's turf to advance its long-term plans to repurpose the deteriorated property as a residential housing development.

Company attorneys haven't disclosed plans for the property. They contend Desert Lifestyles has complied with all judicial orders, but can't be forced to operate an unprofitable business with the simple bang of a gavel.

U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware didn't disagree, but he did say the course's owners had some responsibility to restore the course to conditions outlined under land use covenants and other documents that came attached to Silverstone's sale.

In other words, Boulware said, "it has to look like a golf course."

He found Desert Lifestyles took "deliberate and purposeful" action to stop maintaining the course, a move he said already cost homeowners an undetermined amount in lost property values.

Boulware's order forces Silverstone's new owners to pay the course's estimated seven-figure annual water bill while related litigation works its way through the courts.

Ronald Richards, the Beverly Hills-based attorney who represents Desert Lifestyles, said he'll seek a stay on those payments while appealing Boulware's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Attorney and Silverstone homeowner Melanie Hill, one of the plaintiffs named in court papers filed against Richards' company, said such a move is unlikely to gain traction at the appeals court.

She figures it's just a stalling tactic meant to encourage mediation with homeowners who, in her view, are in no mood to talk about a truce.

Neither attorney representing Silverstone homeowners has ruled out the possibility of settling the matter out of court, though any such agreement would require support from three-quarters of Silverstone residents.

That could prove a high bar, given the tenor in the courtroom Tuesday.

"They're arguing that it should just look green and not actually be playable," said Hill, one of more than a hundred homeowners who packed court chambers over a two-day spate of hearings this week. "The covenant says it should be operated as a 27-hole golf course, unless 75 percent of the homeowners agree it should be something else.

"We have no desire to mediate with them. The homeowners don't have any intention of doing that."

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven