Local News
At next Monday’s Town Meeting, residents will decide the future of the long-standing Cape Cod course, with part of the land set aside for conservation.
A view of “The Volcano” at the Cape Cod Country Club in Falmouth. Courtesy of Cape Cod Country Club
A Cape Cod golf course that’s hosted players for nearly a century may soon trade its fairways for solar panels. Falmouth residents will vote next Monday, Nov. 17, on whether to turn the historic Cape Cod Country Club property into solar arrays and a battery storage site, along with dedicated open space.
If approved, the project developers, PureSky Energy, will cover approximately 57 acres with more than 45,000 solar panels, generating over 29,000 megawatt-hours of energy per year, enough to power 7% of the county’s electricity.
The plans include donating 137 acres to the town for conservation purposes, including planting pollinator meadows and trees. However, developers would clear about 10 acres for the solar arrays and battery storage facility.
The Cape Cod Commission, the region’s planning agency, approved the conversion of the golf course during a September meeting.
The project is, to date, the most extensive solar array approved by the commission in the county and would be one of the largest in the state.
There are three articles on the project up for debate at the upcoming Town Meeting. Article 12 would authorize the land donation to the town, which would reserve parts for municipal and conservation use, and the lease-back deal for a portion of the site for the solar development.
The land donation would allow for walking trails and open fields (including the preservation of a favorite sledding hill).
Article 13 would permit the town’s Select Board to petition the state Legislature to accept the land as a gift, streamlining the donation process, and lease it back to the developers for up to 40 years, with extensions possible.
Then, Article 14, a citizens’ petition, seeks to stop the project by removing the golf course from the town’s solar overlay district. (The town approved including it in the overlay district at a Town Meeting in 2021.)
At the commission meeting, Matthew Terry of Ament Klauer in Falmouth said that the course’s owner, David Friel — whose family has run the property since 1985 — found little interest from anyone wanting to keep it as a golf course.
Friel told The Falmouth Enterprise that the course was struggling financially and the sale was strictly business. Early talks in 2019 with developers explored turning the land into housing or solar use.
If approved, the project team says it will take about six to nine months to complete the transition to a solar array and open space.
“This is an exciting moment for Falmouth and for our team,” said Derek Moretz, VP of development, speaking on behalf of PureSky Energy, in a statement after winning the commission’s approval.
He continued, “These projects will demonstrate that clean energy development can go hand in hand with environmental protection and community benefit, and we look forward to working with the town as we bring this vision to life.”
Some residents have come out against the project in public comments submitted to the commission, advocating for the golf course to remain open, as it is one of the few affordable public courses in the area and citing its historical significance.
According to Cape Cod Country Club’s website, the course was designed by Devereux Emmet and Alfred H. Tull, and in the 1950s, it hosted three consecutive Massachusetts State Open tournaments.
Others opposed to the project have also said they would have preferred to see the land used for housing, citing the region’s housing crisis.
A Change.org petition garnered over 3,500 signatures to keep the course, as is.
As one petitioner wrote, “This course is a treasure that should be celebrated and supported, not abandoned like this.”
Beth Treffeisen is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on local news, crime, and business in the New England region.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
