Trump's Scottish Golf Resort

I read in last Thursday's Chicago Tribune that Donald Trump is trying to build the "World's Greatest Golf Resort" in Balmedie, Scotland.

But the local planning commission wants to protect a scientifically important sand dune, and a scrappy farmer named Michael Forbes is refusing to sell his 23 acre property.

The commission voted to turn down the proposal because Trump wants to stabilize the sand dune by planting grass on it.

They say that Trump is the problem, because he won't negotiate.  He is just telling them to take it or leave it.

Forbes' property is right in the center of Trump's proposed 1400 acre site.  Trump has offered Forbes $750,000 for his property, which does not sound like much considering that houses on the golf course will start at $1 million each.

The article compares this scenario to the 1983 movie "Local Hero", which had Burt Lancaster playing a Texas oil tycoon trying to buy up a Scottish fishing village and turn it into a North Sea oil terminal.

Balmedie, however, is no fishing village - it is a suburb of prosperous Aberdeen.

One of the guys who is organizing the protest is Mickey Foote.  He runs a local waste management company, but is famous as the producer of "The Clash".  He thinks that the locals are in awe of Trump and think they will get to "rub elbows with Tiger Woods".

In reality, he said that these will be gated, private residences that will be off-limits to the regular Scots, who like to roam where they please.

Businesses are in favor of the deal, and it looks like the Scottish government may step in and overrule the local council.


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