The owners of the Mountain Laurel Golf Club will shutter the course in November and want a zoning change for the property so it is more attractive to potential buyers.

The property’s owners, sisters Maureen Bufalino and Catherine Gower, asked the East Side Borough council on Sept. 1 to rezone the property from CR (conservation) to B1 (highway business).

A lawyer for the sisters, Stephanie Koval of Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba from Allentown, told council that the golf club’s restaurant will close Oct. 2 and golfing will end Nov. 11.

At that time, the owners want to put the property up for sale and want the zoning change so it will go for the “highest and best use,” Koval said.

Bufalino and Gower said the family bought the business 16 years ago and it has been “subsidized by our other businesses.”

“(These) last three years have killed us,” Gower said.

“It’s time to stop,” Bufalino said. “We want to sell in order recoup the money we have put into it.”

Thomas Shepstone of Shepstone Management, also speaking for the property owners, said that with more than 52,000 vehicles passing by the property on Interstate 80 each day (on average), there are good business uses for the property, not just as a site for a warehouse.

Koval said they were applying to rezone the property in Kidder Township as well. The golf club’s clubhouse and pro shop, along with most of nine holes and its driving range, are in East Side and abut Interstate 80. The balance of the course, including the longest holes, are in Kidder.

Council members questioned the proposal, and the increased traffic it may bring. They asked if the property owners had met with the White Haven Volunteer Fire Company about building a structure 60 feet tall and were told the property owners had not talked to the fire company.

Current zoning allows for a 30-foot structure.

East Side Mayor Lou Esa said that council has received 23 emails opposing the change of the site to allow a warehouse. He also said that a petition in the community is on its way to collecting 1,000 signatures opposed to the change.

Esa said that East Side is a good place to raise kids, and implied that the borough is not in need of a change.

Koval asked council how the property owners move ahead.

East Side’s solicitor James Nanovic said they should do a market study and that giving options for uses other than a warehouse would be helpful.

The property owners are expected to return for the October meeting.