Golf enthusiasts and environmentalists clashed Tuesday as county supervisors approved a contract to allow golf to continue at the San Geronimo Golf Course property for the next two years and accepted a $150,000 grant to help underwrite the planning process for the property.
Golfers who spoke during the meeting urged supervisors not to accept a $150,000 grant from the state Coastal Conservancy because they said the grant focuses too narrowly on environmental restoration and would make it unlikely that golf would remain as a continuing use on the 157-acre property.
Environmentalists, who supported accepting the grant, voiced their opposition to a contract with Touchstone Golf to operate the golf course on an interim basis while the planning process for the long-term use of the property takes place. They asked for increased public access to the land over the next two years as well as reduced use of pesticides and water for irrigation.
The supervisors took up the grant first.
Amelia “Niz” Brown, one of the leaders of San Geronimo Advocates, a group that has sued the county to block its purchase of the golf course, raised concerns that as part of the agreeement for $150,000, it would exclude future use as a golf course.
“This agreement doesn’t say anything about maintaining the use that exists now; it’s all about restoration and reuse,” Brown said.
‘Hiding cost’
The agreement states that the “grantee will initiate and lead a restoration and reuse planning process,” and specifies the “report shall include descriptions of natural communities and resources on the property, an explanation of how indicators of ecosystem health will be monitored and evaluated, a public access and compatible use component, and a concept-level assessment and recommendation for restoration projects on the property for the benefit of salmonid and other riparian and natural resources and reuse of the property.”
Dave Minnick also objected to the fact that the grant requires the county of Marin to match the $150,000 for a total project cost of at least $300,000.
“You’re hiding the cost to the community,” Minnick asserted.
Marin County Parks Director Max Korten said $100,000 of the county’s matching funds will come from Measure A money and about $40,000 would come from the county’s general fund.
Supervisor Kate Sears said that information needed to be specified in the resolution the supervisors were voting on if she were to support it. The resolution was amended and passed on a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Judy Arnold dissenting.
“Forty-thousand dollars is a lot of money in my district,” Arnold said. She said with that amount of money she might have been able to mount a successful campaign to pass Measure E, the Novato flood control measure, last November.
When it came time to review Touchstone’s contract to reopen the golf course in San Geronimo, it was the environmentalists’ turn to urge supervisors to say no.
Blasts golfers
Under the contract, the county will pay Touchstone a monthly management fee of $6,000 and the county will provide Touchstone with $140,000 in working capital to start operations. The county can cancel the contract at any time and will spend no more than $280,000 over the two years to underwrite the operations; that is the same amount it would cost the county to maintain the property without golf.
Reacting to the fact that the contract would allow two one-year extensions after the initial two-year period, William Binzen said, “This is flat-out unacceptable. We thought we had a deal. We’re going to re-wild this land, and after two years, all golf must cease.”
Binzen said the number of Marin residents who want to see the San Geronimo property turned into a park vastly out-number those who want golf there but he said golfers have been “obstreperous, boorish and threatening like a band of thugs.”
Todd Steiner, executive director of Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN), said, “We initially supported keeping golf course operations during the restoration planning process. We don’t anymore. After what we’ve had to endure we’ve changed or position.”
Limiting pesticides
Barbara Bogard, who serves on the executive committee of the Marin Group of the Sierra Club, read a letter stating the group’s position on the contract.
Bogard said the Marin group would like to see the property made available for general public use to the exclusion of golf on as many days per month as possible to include weekdays and weekends. Bogard said the Marin group wanted a ban on the use of pesticides at the golf course. And she said the golf course should no longer be allowed to use 20-acre feet of water from Larsen Creek each year for irrigation. Several speakers made similar requests.
Korten said the agreement requires Touchstone to abide by the county’s integrated pest management plan for limiting the use of pesticides, and the company has agreed to discuss ways of expanding public access to the golf course after the first 60 days of operation.
Regarding prohibiting use of the 20-acre feet of water from Larsen Creek, Korten said keeping that 6.5 million gallons of water in the creek would probably be part of any restoration project, “but likely wouldn’t happen right away.”
The supervisors voted unanimously to approve the contract. In an email following the meeting, however, Steiner wrote that he is investigating if re-opening the golf course without additional environmental review is legal. He added, “If we determine this is not the case, we are prepared to act.”
