A proposed six-home subdivision on the Azalea Course at the Lakewood Golf Club in Point Clear was denied on Thursday by the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Commission, after residents of the area—some of whom live on the course themselves—raised safety objections.

But the subdivision, which was initially proposed in 2019 to the Fairhope Planning Commission, could still move forward, if the Baldwin County Commission overrides their planning commission’s wishes.

“I’ve listened to all of this, I’ve read both of the reports, I’ve listened to comments on both sides of this,” Bill Booher, a member of the planning commission, said during the meeting. “I really do think it reminds me of an old song by Joni Mitchell: ‘They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.’”

The Retirement Systems of Alabama, which owns Lakewood, had applied to the planning commission to rezone a parcel of land between the fairways of two holes on the Azalea Course to Residential Single Family-1 instead of Outdoor Recreation. The commission was also to consider a Planned Residential Development (PRD) for a six home-subdivision, to be known as “The Oaks at the Colony.”

And while Goodwyn Mills Cawood, the architecture firm designing the subdivision, argued that the subdivision was perfectly safe, opposing residents argued the opposite. They even hired a golf expert to contradict the golf course expert hired by the developers.