A new Erie County Park is set to open in Amherst.
The site of the former Westwood Country Club is slated to be transformed into a new public green space complete with a nine-hole golf course and space for recreational activities.
Erie County plans to start construction this spring, and hopes to open the 171-acre site in 2026 under the new name of “Willowdale Park” in honor of its original 1921 Willowdale Country Club course designed by two-time Open Champion, Willie Park Jr.
The project is a partnership between the Town of Amherst -- which took out an initial $7.5 million bond to acquire the property from Mensch Capital Partners in 2021-- and Erie County, which will invest $3.7 million from a capital reserve fund and another $3 million to rebuild the golf course, which comes from the county’s $26 million budget surplus according to Erie County Executive, Mark Poloncarz.
Amherst Town Supervisor, Brian Kulpa (D), said the town has also secured state funding to build an all-inclusive playground.
“We’re moving forward with that plan as well as continuing to work towards building a future winter market – space for the community to come together, space that will be able to hold farmers markets and gatherings in the summer,” he said.
Once open, it will be the only county-owned nine-hole golf course, adding to the two 18-hole courses at Grover Cleveland Park on the Buffalo/Amherst border, and Elma Meadows.
Poloncarz is hoping the golf course will be a money-maker for the county and cited the City of Buffalo’s nine-hole courses at Cazenovia Park and South Park as revenue generators for the Olmsted Parks system.
“The first important thing is to get the park open, to get the golf course open, so we can generate revenue from it and then let people just walk this beautiful site,” he said.
“Nine-hole courses are popular. Actually, they're more popular today than they probably were 20, 30 years ago because people don't want to be on golf courses for five hours.”
With one half taken up by the golf course, the other will be a large “passive park” with walking trails, a bathroom and an area for food trucks or other vendors according to a press release.
Poloncarz added that plans for the old, shuttered clubhouse are yet to be determined and mused it may eventually become a banquet facility but “that would be years off.”
The Town of Amherst has struggled for more than a decade to decide what to do with the site.
In 2024 the town board voted to rescind an $11 million bond for a MusicalFare Theater performance facility after residents petitioned against the development.
Though the site would qualify for brownfield tax credits if a developer were to build there, Poloncarz said it is “not so much a brownfield.”
“This was not an industrial site,” he said. “The items that were in the soil were fertilizer and weed killer, things like that, which are going to probably be here again anyway. So it's nothing shocking. It's not like, ‘Oh my lord, there's radioactive material there.’”
Kulpa added that the DEC has given the town “sign-off” on the playground area.
“It’s been tested - that whole area is clean,” he said.
But Republican-endorsed candidate for Amherst Town Supervisor, Dan Gagliardo, questioned the town’s plans.
“We’re losing control of what we own,” Gagliardo said. “We’re losing taxable revenue.”
He agrees the site should be a golf course but questioned whether local lawmakers had gauged input of making the site profitable for the town before handing the land over to the county.
He is also concerned the new park may take away revenue from the town’s neighboring 18-hole Audubon golf course.
“My only stipulation is - have we researched people who might want to do it? Have we spoken to the residents to make sure they want this as well? And that is easily rectified by having a referendum on the ballot to let them make that decision,” Gagliardo argued.
Erie County Legislator for District 5, Jeanne Vinal (D), has long pushed for a park in Amherst. She said she has knocked on “thousands” of doors to speak to some of the town’s 130,000 residents about the prospect.
“People almost universally want the park,” she said. “Amherst actually pays more taxes to the county than any other municipality. So this is getting the park, and the county is going to pay it.
“It's really a benefit to Amherst, that they're getting this beautiful park and that most of the cost will be shared by the whole county and the state of New York, which is appropriate and fair.”
The plans now need approval from the Amherst Town Board and the Erie County Legislature.
