Quarrels Continue Over Trump's Golf Project In Scotland

by Paul Rogers (RSS feed)
May 9th 2009 at 10:01AM

Donald Trump may have won the Scottish government's approval to build a massive seaside golf resort in the Highlands, but squabbles over the project continue. In an amusing column by Sarah Lyall, who delights in chronicling the quirkiness of British culture, The New York Times reports that Michael Forbes, the local fisherman and quarry worker whose 23-acre property lies within Trump's proposed development, is standing firm in his refusal to sell the land he's lived on for 41 years. He's painted a big anti-Trump motto on the side of his barn and won't even open mail from Trump's people. Trump calls Forbes' property, which includes a series of weathered outbuildings, a "monstrosity" that should be improved or condemned. In another twist, a Scottish architecture magazine derided Edinburgh's preliminary approval of Trump's plans by bestowing its Pockmark Award for the year's worst planning decision. The $1.5 billion development, which Trump says remains on track and could break ground in early 2010, calls for two 18-hole golf courses, a 450-room hotel, 950 vacation homes and 500 single-family homes. The property sits along the North Sea, eight miles north of Aberdeen.

Back in the States, Trump's also making news with this golf plans. He purchased the Lowes Island Club in Loudon County, Va., outside Washington, earlier this year and has vowed to renovate its two courses so well as to attract a PGA Tour event. He's also announced new initiation fees: $75,000 for regular golf memberships, $175,000 for corporate memberships, and $25 for social, or nongolf, memberships.

Tags: donald trump, DonaldTrump, golf, Lowes Island Club, LowesIslandClub, Scotland