Falcon Pointe disc golf course at Pflugerville park faces lawsuit
A city of Pflugerville disc golf course has sparked controversy, a lawsuit and an online petition calling for safety improvements.
“I dare you to go on the Falcon Pointe disc golf course to use the trails for running, jogging or biking while the disc golfers are out there,” Pflugerville resident Matt Alvers said at a recent City Council meeting. “It’s super scary.”
He said the golf course is designed badly, with places where disc golfers have to throw across the trail that runs through it to hit the baskets that serve as holes and other places where the baskets are too close to homes. He also said players have jumped over his fence tor retrieve their disc and cursed at his young children when they are in the area playing.
Alvers has started on online petition about the disc golf course at change.org that asks for the holes that are on homeowners association property to be removed.
The first nine holes of Falcon Pointe disc golf course are at the city-owned Central Park at Falcon Pointe, 18720 Falcon Pointe Boulevard. The second nine holes of the course are across the street on land owned by the Falcon Pointe Homeowners Association except for a pond that is owned by Travis County Municipal Utility District #15.
Non-residents are not allowed to play disc golf on the land the homeowners’ group owns unless they are with residents.
The petition, which also asks that other tee boxes and holes on city parkland be placed no closer than 100 feet from homes, has had more than 500 signatures.
The homeowners association represents residents of more than 1,700 upscale homes at Falcon Pointe, which is southeast of the intersection of Texas 45 and Texas 130.
Alvers also sued the Falcon Pointe Homeowners Association in January for negligence over the nine golf holes that are on the association’s property. The lawsuit is still pending.
But John Mendoza, a Falcon Pointe resident who designed the disc golf course, said during a phone interview that he realizes there are safety issues at the course and that he has moved some baskets away from homes, he said.
“A lot of things have been done to prevent injury and that is why there hasn’t been one,” he said.
The course was built more than 10 years ago but received little use until 2020, said city spokeswoman Maggie Holman. In April 2020, the Falcon Pointe Homeowners Association asked the city’s parks and recreation staff if Mendoza, a resident of Falcon Pointe, could improve the course, Holman said.
“City staff assessed Mr. Mendoza’s plan and approved modifications be made to the nine holes on city parkland,” she said. “The HOA also approved the modifications for their nine holes, and all improvements were made by the end of June 2020. Mr. Mendoza did all the fundraising and volunteer coordination for the project, and the city purchased locks for baskets and updated signage at minimal cost.”
She said the Police Department has received no complaints about the disc golf course in the past 90 days.
“We’d just like to reiterate that overall we have seen an increase in use of the course due to the changes and positive reviews online,” Holman said.
Alvers said he was so concerned about the safety at the course that he hired an expert on disc golf design, John Houck of Austin, to assess the safety of it in April.
Houck’s report said that “most of the 18 holes on this course have safety issues where fairways cross over trails, are too close to the sidewalk and trails, and are close to other park features.”
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“Discs will land on and fly over those areas,” the report said. “Some discs would go into the homeowners’ backyards, school property and the road.”
Homes and yards are vulnerable to flying discs on at least two holes on the city-owned parkland and at least three holes on the land that the homeowners’ association owns, the report said.
Mendoza said that after reading the Houck report he made changes to the course, including putting in directional arrows for players to follow that pointed away from hazards, including the trail.
He said he has received support from hundreds of people about the course. Some residents who live on the same street as Alvers “reached out to me and purchased Frisbees and play with me on a regular basis,” he said.
Mendoza also said that he and other players only use the first nine golf holes that are on city parkland and avoid the holes on the property of the homeowners association to not create problems.
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The lawsuit that Alvers and his wife, Emily Alvers, filed against the Falcon Pointe Homeowners Association claims that board members did not take any action after the couple told them about problems at the disc golf course including drug and alcohol use and tee boxes and baskets placed too close to homes and the trail.
“The constant use of the disc golf course in close proximity to their (Alvers) home has resulted in repeated trespassers and potential for burglaries and other escalated crimes,” the lawsuit said.
Adam Pugh, the lawyer representing the homeowners association and Goodwin Management, which manages the property, said the board members could not do anything about the problems the Alvers complained to them about.
“The HOA is not in a position to enforce criminal laws in any other way than to call the police, which is what they advised the Alvers to do in the event they witnessed criminal behavior,” Pugh said in an email.
Matt Alvers said he has called the police who have told him they can’t do anything because the land belongs to the association. Holman said she had no information specifically about Alvers’ complaints to the police.
“While a police officer will respond to a call for service, a warning or charges can only be filed if someone who has authority over the property requests it,” she said “An individual representing the HOA would need to contact the Pflugerville Police Department.”
Disc golf has created some problems because it surged in popularity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mike Olse of Austin, who is a member of the Professional Disc Golf Association.
Olse, who is also a part-time consultant for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, said he has seen some conflicts in Austin area parks over disc golf courses.
“It has to do with site planning,” he said. “A disc golf course gets thrown into a neighborhood by people with good intentions but maybe they don’t understand the product they are placing there.”
“We are sort of learning in this short period of time where it should go and what it could be,” Olse said. “I don’t think all the answers are there yet.”
