City to close Modesto Municipal Golf Course, eventually sell it
The city will close Modesto Municipal Golf Course, its revered nine-hole course where generations have learned to play the game since it opened in the 1930s.
The City Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday night to direct staff to shutter the course and prepare it for sale, a reflection of the financial difficulties Modesto has had in owning three courses (18-hole Creekside and Drydren are the others) as well as declining interest in the game nationwide.
The vote was 6-0 because Councilwoman Kristi Ah You was not at the meeting.
The closure will take some time. The local chapter of The First Tee — a nationwide organization that teaches life skills to young people through golf — manages muni under a contract with the city that ends in December. The city will work with First Tee to move its program to Dryden by no later than the end of the contract.
City Manager Joe Lopez stressed that a sale of the course is not imminent. He said the council Tuesday approved staff doing its due diligence to prepare the tree-lined course next to John Thurman Field in west Modesto for sale, and staff eventually will come back to the council for permission to put the course up for sale.
While city officials say a developer has expressed interest in building housing at the course, Lopez said the city will do outreach in the surrounding neighborhoods to get residents’ input on how they would like to see it repurposed.
Audience member Pamela Corbett told council members that the golf course is a gem and it breaks her heart to see the city sell a historical property, especially in 2020 as Modesto celebrates its 150th birthday. But city officials said they share her concerns.
Council members said it is important that the nine-hole course’s history be reflected in some measure in its redevelopment. Before it was a golf course, the site was the home of Coffee Field, the city’s first airfield.
Modesto is shuttering the course to reduce the general fund subsidy to its golf fund. Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Director Laurie Smith said that subsidy is about $850,000 this year. About $500,000 is for the annual debt payment for Creekside, which ends in 2023.
But city officials said the subsidy does not include about $1.4 million in long-delayed capital improvements at the three courses, with most needed at Muni. And officials said they expect the financial strain to grow worse in future years as interest in golf continues to decline.
Security for shuttered course
Smith said closing the nine-hole course should reduce the annual subsidy by $150,000 to $200,000, but the city won’t have to make capital improvements at the course and can reinvest the proceeds of selling it in the Dryden and Creekside courses.
Smith conservatively estimates that it will cost the city $159,000 annually to secure and maintain the nine-hole course once it’s closed, but the expectation is that the city will be able to sell the property without having it sit vacant for too long.
Councilwoman Jenny Kenoyer said she is concerned that the longer the property is vacant, the more it will become a magnet for homeless campers or what she called people looking for living space.
Modesto officials have talked off-and-on for many years about the strain three public courses have placed on the city budget but were not able to make a decision until Tuesday to close a course.
“I think everyone in the audience can see how difficult this is for us,” Mayor Ted Brandvold said Tuesday as about two dozen golfers and First Tee officials and participants sat in the audience. “This is very difficult for us.”
The mayor thanked First Tee officials and golfers for understanding the city’s plight and First Tee officials for working with the city.
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 1:41 PM.
