West Modesto tells city Muni is more than a golf course. It’s a community treasure
Residents delivered a clear message to the city last week — they do not want homes, stores and similar development at Modesto Municipal Golf Course, which the city has decided to close by the end of this year.
City officials held a meeting Thursday at Mancini Hall Senior Center near the nine-hole course in west Modesto. It drew more than 75 people, including residents who live by the course, residents from throughout Modesto and lots of golfers.
It was the first of two scheduled meetings to gather public input to help the City Council decide on the future for Muni, which opened in 1933 as the city’s first golf course. The tree-lined course also is a gem for west Modesto, one of the city’s most diverse, poorest and oldest communities.
It provides open space and beauty for residents. Walkers and joggers travel along the 54-acre course’s perimeter, and families stroll and picnic on the course when golfers leave for the day. Some residents have said that while they don’t feel safe in nearby city parks, they feel safe at Muni.
City officials gave each audience member two green stickers (for yes) and a red one (for no) to place on boards representing five potential options for the course: housing, commercial development, recreation, open space and other uses.
Red stickers filled the boards for housing and commercial, with the three other boards receiving nearly all of the green stickers. Other uses got the most. That was the choice for people who want the site to continue as a golf course.
“... I hope the city is realizing that they haven’t evaluated how this space is actually used,” said audience member Tracy Herbeck as she summed up audience sentiment at the end of the meeting. “And it’s going to decimate this community when they close it, and the homeless move in.
“This is one space that is working well because the golfers are here, and it allows people to use it as green space other times. It’s just kind of been a balanced place that is actually functioning properly. There is no other green space in Modesto where you are not going to find needles or people’s clothing or people sleeping in bushes or you think someone is dead because they are laying on the ground. This is it.”
Questioning city’s priorities
Herbeck, who grew up in west Modesto and played at Muni with her friends as a child, said the city’s priorities are out of focus because it is willing to spend what it costs to operate Muni for two years to research bringing another hotel to downtown.
“There is something terribly wrong with the budget, and this place needs to be fought for,” she said to loud applause from audience members.
But Ron DeLoach with the West Modesto People of Action Council said while he appreciated audience members’ sentiments, there is a desperate need for affordable housing, especially for seniors, and Muni represents an opportunity for that.
But one audience member said developing the property as housing or commercially would harm the neighborhood. He said affordable housing would not help the property values of the single-family homes that line the course, and commercial development would mean strip malls with liquor stores and smoke shops.
The City Council decided in January 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 (the others are 18-hole courses Creekside and Dryden) as well as declining interest in the game nationwide.
The Council has not yet made a decision on whether to put the course up for sale, but council members have said they want a say in how the course is redeveloped if it is sold.
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 is working with First Tee to move its program to Dryden.
The city had planned to hold its second scheduled meeting this Thursday at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, but that meeting will be rescheduled as part of the city’s effort to limit public gatherings because of the coronavirus, according to city spokesman Thomas Reeves.
But Modesto could hold additional meetings for the public. Deputy City Manager Scotty Douglass told the Mancini Hall audience members that two meetings may not be enough, adding he appreciated audience members’ passion for Muni.
Reducing cost to general fund
Modesto is closing the course to reduce the general fund subsidy to its golf fund. Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Director Laurie Smith has 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 have 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 have said they expect the financial strain to grow worse in future years as interest in golf continues to decline.
Still, audience members said Thursday that the golf courses’ finances should improve once the Creekside debt is paid off. And one audience member suggested Modesto shorten the seventh and ninth holes at Muni by 30 yards each to create space for an events venue for weddings, receptions and other gatherings.
He said his idea is based on what Manteca offers at its golf course, and a similar venue would be a moneymaker for Muni.
Modesto officials have said they are restricted on what they can do with Dryden because half of its land was donated for the express purpose of creating a golf course.
