Erie County eyes takeover, $6.7 million revival of Amherst's Westwood golf course
Erie County plans to spend $6.7 million on work at the 170-acre site that should begin this year and wrap up by 2026, said County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
Amherst has struggled for more than a decade with the question of what to do with the sprawling former Westwood Country Club site in the heart of the town.
Wednesday brought an answer: The town plans to turn over control of the property to Erie County, which will operate it as a nine-hole golf course and a passive park.
An aerial view of the former Westwood Country Club in Amherst. Officials on Wednesday announced Erie County will take over the site from
the Town of Amherst to operate it as a nine-hole golf course and passive park. Derek Gee, Buffalo News
The county intends to invest $6.7 million into reviving the 170-acre country club, which closed in 2014, with the intention of reopening it to public access next year.
“We’ve always said we wanted this to be passive. We wanted it to be inclusive. We wanted it to be open. We wanted it to be something that everybody could use,” Supervisor Brian Kulpa said Wednesday during a news conference outside the clubhouse, where he was joined by County Executive Mark Poloncarz and other officials.
The venue will be known as Willowdale Park, a nod to the property’s history.
Town officials, park neighbors and Amherst taxpayers have argued for 13 years over how best to reuse the 170-acre site. Various plans came and went, including a large, mixed-use project eyed for the property.
“Amherst residents will be very pleased because there will be no massive development on the site, something we know they were very opposed to,” Poloncarz said. “We listened to them and came up with a solution to the site that brings people together while preserving and maintaining natural, outdoor recreation space.”
Kulpa said he began discussing this option with Poloncarz and other county officials 12 months ago. But Wednesday was the first time Amherst residents learned of the plan.
“I am not sure as to why this has been going on for a year, and we’re just hearing about it today,” said Dan Gagliardo, one of two Republican candidates running to succeed Kulpa, a Democrat barred by term limits from running for reelection.
Lengthy debate
Today, a security fence wraps around the Westwood site, which is used solely as overflow parking for vehicles from the Northtown Automotive dealership.The saga dates to 2012, when the Mensch Capital Partners group bought the former country club, at Sheridan Drive and North Forest Road, from club members for $2.5 million.
Mensch’s investors proposed a huge, $238 million development with housing for up to 1,700 people, along with a 130-room hotel and 200,000 square feet of office space. But neighbors objected to the scale of the plan.
The town and the developers reached a tentative deal in 2021 to swap Westwood’s 171 acres for 38 acres of town land that included three holes from the Audubon Golf Course and a swath of softball diamonds.
This was partly intended to shift denser development away from the Westwood site and toward land nearer to athletic venues and the University at Buffalo North Campus.
By late 2021, however, town officials and Mensch reversed course and agreed the town would buy Westwood as is for $7.8 million.
Kulpa proposed transforming the former country club into a public space boasting an ice ribbon, winter market venue, splash pad, accessible playground, new MusicalFare Theatre building, renovated clubhouse and relocated Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village museum.
The town received a $1 million state grant to pay for the inclusive playground and a $2.4 million county grant to fund a year-round farmers market.
By 2024, however, MusicalFare had decided to move to downtown Buffalo, in the face of resident pushback, and the Heritage Village had opted to stay where it was, following a legal challenge.
“We always knew a park would be successful here,” Kulpa said. “It’s been trying to sculpt it and figure out what should be included in it.”
Kept under wraps
Kulpa told The News that town and county officials didn’t disclose anything publicly sooner because they didn’t know whether the idea would work logistically and financially.“You want to make sure you can actually do this,” Kulpa said in an interview. “We’re not just going to come out with something half-baked.”
The town and county still are working out whether Amherst will transfer outright ownership to the county or reach a leasing or operating agreement, the supervisor said. He confirmed the town still would be obligated to pay off the $7.8 million it borrowed to buy the property from Mensch.
The county’s planned investment in the property, $6.7 million, includes money from capital reserves – including the previously announced $2.4 million grant – and from a budget surplus, Poloncarz said.
The county will be responsible for future operating costs, with county parks employees staffing the venue.
Work on the golf course and the park would begin this year, Poloncarz said.
For now, the county likely will use the former clubhouse as office space, which won’t be open to the public, but officials will consider other possibilities in the future, he said.
County Executive Mark Poloncarz speaks at a news conference Wednesday at the former Westwood Country Club to discuss the county's plans to operate a new park and nine-hole golf course at the site.
Amherst will use the state grant to build the inclusive playground, in the parcel’s southeastern corner, before turning over this section to the county as well.
Prior rounds of testing had found metals in the soil, largely a result of decades of spraying with fertilizer and other chemicals, but Poloncarz and Kulpa said they don’t believe an extensive or costly cleanup of the site is required.
The county plans to bring holes 10 through 18 back to life as a nine-hole course, Poloncarz said, something Erie County doesn’t currently have.
Westwood opened under the Willowdale name in 1921 and seven of the nine holes the county plans to restore date to the original course layout.
Poloncarz said the last time the county added a park of this size to its portfolio was when it took over the Grover Cleveland Golf Course from the City of Buffalo.
Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa, in vest, stands behind a map of the planned Willowdale Park, the name selected for the new park that
Erie County plans to operate on the site of the former Westwood Country Club.
GOP criticizes spending
County Legislator Jeanne Vinal, D-Amherst, had pushed Erie County to pursue the Westwood property because, she noted, Amherst doesn’t have its own county park.“It’s going to be a great resource for generations,” Vinal said.
Not all her colleagues welcomed the new park. County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo, R-West Seneca, blasted Poloncarz’s announcement.
“This will cost taxpayers millions every year that should be spent on roads and infrastructure, not Mark’s golf hobby,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The County Legislature and Amherst Town Board, both controlled by Democrats, must approve elements of the agreement before the deal is final.
Amherst Deputy Supervisor Shawn Lavin, the Democratic candidate for town supervisor, attended the news conference and praised the project.
Gagliardo and Dennis Hoban, Lavin’s two Republican opponents, said they welcome news that the country club will remain free of dense development, but they have other concerns.
Gagliardo said he wonders whether the town investigated selling a portion of the property to a private golf operator, a move that would keep this land on the tax rolls.
And he said he believes the town should let the public vote on the deal with the county.
“I welcome the idea that we’re gonna get something going with this park, but I think my personal proposal is, put this on the referendum and let the people decide,” Gagliardo said.
Hoban, for his part, said he thinks Erie County should pay Amherst what the town borrowed to buy the land in the first place.
Otherwise, he said, town taxpayers will have spent nearly $8 million to the benefit of county residents.
“I don’t think it’s a good deal at all. I think it’s a bad deal,” Hoban said. “I think Kulpa is just trying to dig his way out of a hole.”