Sharp Park Golf Course project to move ahead

San Francisco golfers won another round Thursday when the City Planning Commission agreed to move ahead with construction at the Sharp Park Golf Course, despite complaints from environmentalists.

The commission rejected a call to require a full environmental impact report on the project, an expensive process that can take months to complete. Environmentalists contend the construction could harm the threatened California red-legged frogs and San Francisco garter snakes that live at the Pacifica golf course.

An EIR wouldn't provide much more information than is already available and couldn't touch on the broader issues of the effect of climate change and seawater rise on the golf course, said Commissioner Hisashi Sugaya.

"It doesn't seem that a fair argument has been presented to overturn" the Planning Department's decision on the project.

The dispute is just the latest clash in a decade-long struggle over the future of the 82-year-old golf course.

Opponents Thursday argued that the proposed work, which involves clearing reeds and sediment from a pond and waterway, construction around a pumping station and digging a new, small pond on the site, was a danger to the threatened California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake that live and breed on the oceanside site the city owns.

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Posted by Steve Sinai