Fairway ahead for the S.J. golf courses?
City will consider a new long-term lease versus potential redevelopment
After years of steady decline, San Jose’s city golf courses are once again brimming with players from all over the Bay Area eager to score a coveted tee time.
The boost in players hitting the greens comes amid a national surge in the popularity of golf during the pandemic as public health orders forced people to turn to the outdoors for entertainment.
But whether the recent renaissance in the sport will be enough to quell an interest by some city leaders to explore redeveloping the city’s golf courses into other recreational uses remains to be seen.
The San Jose City Council early next year will be asked to make a critical decision that could seal the fate of its municipal golf courses for years to come.
Under a plan proposed by the city’s Parks Department and endorsed by the Parks Commission, San Jose would enter into a new long-term lease for the operation of all three of its golf courses, ensuring that the properties remain dedicated to golf for at least the next 15 years.
“We’d definitely like to see it stay,” said Dean Fashbaugh, of San Jose, as he prepared to play a round at the Los Lagos Golf Course in South San Jose. “It’s a fun course, and it always seems full.”
Mayor Sam Liccardo, however, isn’t so keen on chaining the city to a longterm lease. Instead, he’s pushing for a shorter-term lease of 3-4 years to give the city flexibility to redevelop one of the courses in the future if it chooses.
During the 2020-21 fiscal year, San Jose’s three municipal golf courses — San Jose Municipal Golf Course, which opened in 1968, and Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo golf courses, which opened in the early 2000s — saw a 65% jump in the number of rounds played. But before the COVID-19 pandemic, the golf courses had been bleeding money year after year as fewer players frequented the courses.
“We should hesitate before deciding on a future course that is informed by a one-year blip in the data based on pandemic era revenues,” Liccardo said in a recent interview. “It’s definitely a good thing that the courses have been running in the black, but it’s not obvious to me that four years from now there will be the same level of interest.
“If this is about recreational opportunities for our community, it’s important for us to look at how many people we can serve and how well can we serve them.”
At the turn of the century, San Jose went into $27.6 million of debt to open Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo. And for most of their existence, neither course turned a profit, which led some San Jose leaders to contemplate ridding the city of the losing ventures.
In 2010, the city weighed selling part of Rancho del Pueblo and building condos before dropping the proposal amid sharp criticism and public outcry. Then, after a 2015 audit pointed out the troubling financial issues involving the city’s golf operations, San Jose began evaluating possible new recreational uses for Los Lagos.
The Parks Department analyzed a range of alternative uses, including redeveloping it into soccer and baseball fields, converting it into a regional park or transforming it into an open space preserve.
Proponents of redeveloping the course for another recreational use argue that could address the city’s need for more sports fields, serve more people and conserve more water and energy.
At a Parks Commission board meeting earlier this month, Commissioner Janny Choy voted against the city entering into new golf course leases, arguing that continuing down this track was “a fiscal liability benefiting only a few people.”
“It seems like there is so much we could be doing in terms of passive recreation for this area,” Choy said, noting that two of the courses border Coyote Creek. “I would love to see this as a broader benefit to the city servicing these very important natural functions and having the recreation that people desire.”
All the redevelopment options, however, would require significant upfront capital costs and would force the department to push back other high-priority projects, including revamping Overfelt Gardens Park and bringing Alum Rock Park up to date.
The Parks Department estimated that grading the Los Lagos course for sports such as soccer and baseball, building a concession stand and restrooms and installing more lighting and parking would cost as much as $70 million, with additional annual maintenance costs.
In comparison, the three golf courses are all expected to become a revenue-producing venture moving forward. The debt on Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo has been paid off, and last year the three courses generated a combined $1.5 million in net operating income for the city.
“Circumstances have changed,” said Avi Yotam, deputy director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department.
“And actually maybe for the first time in a very long time, we’re looking at a very favorable environment for the sport of golf as a part of our active recreation.”
In addition to the new anticipated revenue, proponents of the city’s golf courses say that they make the sport more accessible and affordable to the broader community and provide recreational opportunities for children to seniors.
On a recent weekday morning, the parking lot at Los Lagos Golf Course was nearly full.
Juan Pichardo, 70, had just finished a game with his older brother, Juan Martinez, and son, Tony. As they grabbed their bags off the back of their cart and headed for their cars, they marveled at the beautiful course and the wildlife they come across when playing here, including foxes, geese, snakes and egrets.
“This is what you would really call a community golf course. I see every type of people here — older folks, kids, different nationalities, women,” Pichardo said. “It’s a big, big plus for us to be playing right here.”