Caddyshackpocalypse Soon: Reston National Golf Course Sellers Hint At $200 Million Financial Return, Not Counting Any Stray Golf Balls Left On Course

Hey, remember that time that a giant insurance company decided to try to turn Reston National Golf Course into a collection of sweeeeeeeeet midscale condos, only it couldn't, legally, so it tried to find a greater fool buyer?

Yeah, that was awesome. Well, the company contracted to sell our favorite by-right parcel most endangeredest piece of endangered open space is now calling RNGC "the best residential development opportunity with the highest return potential of any property currently on the U.S. market."

With that level of hyperbole, you'd think it was another real estate developer who's been in the headlines of late who made that statement. But no, it's still the same folks who use lorem ipsum on their website a lot. And it might actually work. Give us some scary blockquote, GlobeSt.com:

The source who priced the possible sale of Reston National also feels optimistic about a favorable zoning decision. “I think once the buyer submits a plan and gets it approved the property could easily be worth more than $200 million.”

Rescue Reston, the RA, and others continue to argue that the golf course cannot be arbitrarily rezoned for residential development through "by right" development, and (for now) our elected officials seem to agree. However, as we've pointed out repeatedly, the owner can go through the regular development channels and propose whatever they want for the space -- and if the county approves it, that's it. Given a possible $200 million return on what is rumored to be a $25 million asking price for the property, it's a safe bet that some enterprising developer will be willing to take a gamble at winning over our development-friendly Board of Supervisors.

It's probably a good idea to continue supporting Rescue Reston -- and holding our elected officials accountable for maintaining the property's open space designation (a good question to start asking anyone running for the Board of Supervisors starting now is whether they'll support RNGC remaining a golf course regardless of any future development proposal). Otherwise, there's a really good chance some property developer, with orange hair or without, is going to offer the cash-strapped county a transit-oriented Deal It Can't Refuse somewhere down the line, throw in a bit of woonerf as a sweetener, and we'll all end up in the alternate timeline from Back to the Future:

Oh, wait.