235 Montgomery St., Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94104 • 415-290-5718 • info@sfpublicgolf.org
Historic “Working-man’s golf course” to Remain Open with SF Supervisors’ Support
SAN
FRANCISCO, CA – After eight years of non-stop political battles,
efforts to preserve the historic Sharp Park Golf Course have received
a long-term commitment from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
By a 9-1
vote on Tuesday, Feb. 28, the
Supervisors certified a Final Environmental Report for a Sharp Park
Restoration Plan that recognizes the historical significance of the
85-year old links designed by Alister MacKenzie, one of world’s
most famous golf course architects. Specifically, the Supervisors:
- Approved the continued operation of the 18-hole public course, owned by San Francisco but located in its beachside suburb of Pacifica;
- Designated the seaside links as “Historic Resource Property” under the California Environmental Quality Act; and
- Allowed modification of three holes along the margins of Laguna Salada, a freshwater marsh in the center of the course, to enhance habitat for the endangered San Francisco garter snake and the protected California red-legged frog, on condition that the changes be consistent with the golf course’s historic architectural character.
A handful
of environmentalist groups, including Wild Equity Institute, the San
Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, a couple
of local Audubon societies, National Parks Conservation Association,
and, for a while, Center for Biological Diversity, had for years
opposed San Francisco’s Sharp Park Plan. They had demanded closure
of the course to protect the frogs and snakes, but since 2009 these
opponents had lost a series of fights over the golf course in San
Francisco city agencies and before the California Coastal Commission,
US Fish & Wildlife Service, and other state and federal resources
agencies. In 2012 and again in 2015, four different state and federal
courts dismissed lawsuits from the activist groups. They lost at
every turn.
The
California Coastal Conservancy and several
resources agency and court
decisions noted that construction of the golf course in the early
1930’s severed connection between the Pacific Ocean and Laguna
Salada, thereby converting what had been a brackish marsh into
suitable habitat for the freshwater frogs and snakes, which were
first found at Sharp Park in 1946, 14 years after the course was
opened. In a 2015 decision in favor of San Francisco’s Sharp Park
plans, the Coastal Commission emphasized the importance of balancing
the historic public recreation value of the golf course with the need
to protect endangered species.
On its Feb.
28 agenda, the SF Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hear yet
another appeal, from the same environmentalist groups, challenging
December 2016 decisions by the San Francisco Planning and Recreation
& Park Commissions certifying a Final EIR and adopting the Sharp
Park Restoration Plan as part of the Rec & Park Department’s
comprehensive San Francisco Natural Areas Plan. But when it came
time for the anti-golf appellants to put on their case, their
attorney Michael Lozeau dramatically announced his clients were
withdrawing their appeal, in consideration for a minor Rec & Park
concession on the placement of dredging spoils.
At that
point, 50-plus San Francisco Public Golf Alliance members who came to
City Hall to testify – working men and women, retirees, and
students from across San Francisco’s broad ethnic and social
spectrum – happily went home. During the two weeks before the
hearing, the golfers submitted over 1,000 e-mails and
mostly-hand-signed letters, pleading the case for their beloved Sharp
Park.
The
golfers’ message resonated with the Supervisors. Voting with the
9-1 majority to certify the Natural Areas Plan Final EIR, Supervisor
Ahsha Safai – whose southern San Francisco district is near Sharp
Park – noted “the irony of it all . . . that we have an existing
working-man’s golf course . . . designed by a Scottish immigrant .
. . that would be restored . . . that would then in the end be the
reason why we have the opportunity to protect two of the most
endangered species in Northern California. That’s one irony that
shouldn’t be lost.”
Thanks to
the Supervisors’ vote, neither the irony nor the golf course will
be lost.
“There’s
still a lot of work to be done to restore MacKenzie’s masterpiece
at Sharp Park,” concluded Golf Alliance co-founder Bo Links, “but
now the wind is at our back.”
#
# #
Contact:
San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
Richard
Harris: richard@sfpublicgolf.org;
415-290-5718
Bo Links:
bo@slotelaw.com; 415-393-8099
Sources:
Letters, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance to SF Planning
Commission (12.12.16
- LINK) and SF Board of
Supervisors (2.17.17
- LINK); SFGovTV, video of Feb. 28, 2017 Board of Supervisors
hearing [LINK
HERE], at 3:23:58 (hearing begins), 3:34:15-3:35:00 and
3:37:20-3:28:50 (Lozeau), and 6:36:28-6:38:48 (Safai).
Posted by Steve Sinai
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