Residents of Wild Wings, a golf course community near Woodland, bought their large homes seeking a life of upper-middle-class stability.

Ducks swim in the ponds that dot the links. Neighbors gather on backyard patios at sunset. Children play in the wide suburban streets.

But times have changed since the height of the housing boom, when the neighborhood was built.

Foreclosures are commonplace. Home prices have plummeted. And the company that owns a well-regarded nine-hole golf course wants to close it because it's losing money.

Bill Baron, a spokesman for Wild Wings, LLC, said the company can no longer afford to pay its taxes and water fees.

That's put homeowners in a lousy position.

They can watch the course go to seed, and their home prices drop, while the county waits to seize it and possibly sell it to developers.

They can agree to pay an extra $1,100 a year to water and mow the grass, but not to maintain it as a golf course.

Or, they can vote to tax themselves up to $1,700 a year to take over the course and hire an operator.

"In the end, we're going to have to pay one way or another," said Scott Picanso, a Woodland seed salesman who bought his Wild Wings house three years ago for more than a half-million dollars.

Yolo County supervisors are scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to hold a special election in February. Residents could then vote whether to tax themselves and keep the course open.

Baron said his company has offered to donate the 90-acre course and all its equipment to the Wild Wings Community Services Area, but residents must pay the company's $440,000 in back taxes.

Harold Duffey, a Yolo planning official, said the latest estimate for residents taking over and running the golf course is as much as $1,700 a household, in addition to normal property taxes and water payments.

In the meantime, the county plans to increase water and sewer rates by almost $1,100 a year per household unless more than half the homeowners protest by Dec. 15.

The rate spike would spread the golf course's share of the water bill – about $180,000 a year – to the community's 337 residential parcels.

Some residents feel the best choice is to keep the course in operation.

Stephanie Young-Birkle, a stay-at-home mom married to a lawyer, doesn't play golf. But her kitchen windows look out on a tranquil scene of a reed-lined duck pond and a green fairway.

The couple, with their two young children, moved from Natomas to the new 3,400-square-foot home in 2005.

Like others, they had to sign a real estate disclosure saying there was no guarantee the golf course would be permanent. She said she didn't really think a golf course could fold.

But in September, a neighbor knocked on her door and told her Wild Wings, LLC, was closing the course.

Since then, making sure the golf course stays open has become a top priority for her and other neighbors.

She said it's not just about the scenery. The golf course is used to distribute treated wastewater from the homes around it.

Keeping home prices as high as possible is another factor. A house similar to hers was selling down the block for $430,000, she said – a lot less than the $700,000 she paid for hers three years ago.

Signs in dozens of front yards around the neighborhood advertise homes for sale and auctions.

At the end of October, nearly one in 10 homes was either up for auction, bank-owned or in pre-foreclosure status, Young-Birkle said.

Realtors have said that losing the course could mean an additional reduction in home values of up to 20 percent, she said.

Not everyone is convinced. Wild Wings resident Joan Tolla is trying to defeat December's water rate increase by getting 170 of her neighbors to sign protest slips.

She said she doesn't think enough options have been pursued and wants to continue negotiating with the county before residents agree to pay hundreds of dollars more per year.

Some are out of work and faced with the prospect of losing their homes.

"People can't afford it," she said, "and they're scared."

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.