CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For Pharaoh Valley residents, recent progress on the long-unused golf course in their neighborhood is an answer to years of prayers.
You know what this golf course looked like in recent years: wild, overgrown, and ugly.
The course may not be ready for play now, but it looks better than it has in years.
“Seeing it now, it’s really great,” said neighborhood resident Tony Abarca.
Those are words which haven’t been said about the Pharaoh Valley Golf Course in a long time.
Abarca has lived in Pharaoh Valley for 43 years. He said the neighborhood already feels brand new.
“It was exciting that we could see our neighbors on the other side, but kind of scary knowing that the wildlife would be going to different spots in the neighborhood,” he said.
For years, the old golf course was an eyesore, but in the last two plus months, crews have worked to clean it up.
Crews hit the course in late August, clearing overgrown brush and getting the land ready for development. With work on Barisi Village finally starting, residents such as Abarca are hopeful their property values will finally stop taking a hit.
“We will get some of the recognition, some of the home values going up that the other parts of town have seen,” he said.
While neighbors are pleased with the progress, some had other ideas in mind for the course.
“If I had a say, that should have been a park,” said Dorina Murgulet.
Murgulet moved to Pharaoh Valley eight years ago. She wants Barisi Village to be both environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
“A nice shopping place with homes that are in the same tone with the neighborhood, that would be nice,” said Murgulet.
That is exactly what the finished product should look like once Barisi Village is completed. One half of the old golf course will be converted into the residential and commercial development, while the other half will be refreshed and converted into a nine-hole course.
Developer Jeff Blackard said crews will be back in town early next week to resume cleaning the course.
