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You meant to pay for this, right?

By Stan Kaufman, Park Advocate

If the controversy currently swirling around the San Francisco public golf courses seems irrelevant to you, the case of Sharp Park should convince you otherwise. The six SF courses collectively receive $1.5M in subsidies annually from the General Fund to offset revenue shortfalls, but Sharp Park -- located in Pacifica -- is poised to cost SF a whole lot more cash while threatening two federally-listed threatened species to boot. In response, progressive park advocates up and down the peninsula are urging public officials to put this space to better recreational use.

The Red Legged Frog, one of the species threatened by the Sharp Park golf course

Sharp Park encompasses the Sanchez Creek watershed. The golf course occupies the lower, western end of the park, while the rest of the park consists of a Significant Natural Resource Area managed by the RPD's Natural Areas Program -- the largest, most intact, and most biodiverse natural area the City owns, as a matter of fact. Essentially all of the "improved" parts of the park (structures and utilities) are there because of the golf course -- except for some ramshackle structures maintained by the 60 year old archery club whose range is at the edge of the natural area.

Bridge over Sanchez Creek

Planners in the San Francisco Rec&Park Department (RPD) have been tabulating the costs of needed capital improvements and deferred maintenance for Sharp Park in their "COMET database." The costs for the golf course range from a miminum of $17M up to a maximum of $47M -- depending on whether low or high estimates are used and which costs are allocated to the golf course. The RPD and Public Utilities Commission have concocted an additional $10M plan to build an irrigation tank for the golf course.

A substantial part of the golf course is actually below sea level and kept dry because of a levy/seawall that is in bad shape. Salt water incursion has been documented in Laguna Salada and Horse Stable Pond, two bodies of water nestled within the course. Without major work on this levy, the entire western end of Sharp Park will resume being the saltwater marsh it once was -- and should be.

Complicating matters is the fact that the Sanchez Creek watershed is home to the red-legged frog, a federally-listed threatened species, and the San Francisco garter snake, one of the most endangered species in North America. Continued use of the park for a golf course limits the available habitat for both of these species, and the proposed use of treated waste water on the golf course poses as-yet unstudied risks do to residual pharmaceuticals and other potential endocrine disrupters in the recycled water. Further habitat loss for the frogs will produce local extinction of the garter snake, which preys upon the frogs.

So what we have here is a golf course located where one should never have been built. It is an unpopular amenity that has seen a 37% decline in use over the past several years. It will require many tens of millions of dollars in construction and repair projects if it continues to be operated for golf. And it contributes significantly to threats to two endangered species. It's small wonder that many organizations like the Neighborhood Parks Council and other individuals are trying to get this misguided use of public resources converted to other recreational purposes.

Rough Skinned Newt. Sharp Park has the only breeding population of newts in Pacifica

Here's what needs doing: contact the Rec&Park Commissioners (c/o Margaret McArthur), the Rec&Park General Manager (Yomi Agunbiade) and your Supervisor (email addresses here) to tell them that:

- You don't want SF to continue to throw good money after bad at the Sharp Park golf course.

- The Sanchez Creek watershed needs to be managed with appropriate ecological protections and habitat restoration for the endangered species living there.

- The rest of the golf course should be converted to recreational uses favored by the majority of the citizens like hiking trails and play fields -- instead of continuing its use as a facility for a rapidly diminishing number of golfers.

- Recycled water should be used in the Sanchez Creek watershed only when adequate studies have shown no deleterious effects on the endangered species from untreated compounds like pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disrupters.

- You oppose subsidizing with San Francisco tax dollars the recreation of San Mateo County citizens.