In an exercise of how to confront bad legislation, the Southern California Golf Association has launched a public relations campaign in response to a proposed law that threatens municipal golf across the state.
Assembly Bill 672, labeled the Public Golf Endangerment Act by the SCGA, provides $50 million in developer subsidies to redevelop California’s municipal golf courses into housing complexes. According to the SCGA, municipal golf courses comprise 22 percent of the state's supply and host 45 percent of all play throughout California.
The SCGA Government Affairs web site offers a laundry list of resources to help educate residents on the issues and convince them to contact their legislators in opposition to the proposed law.
It also serves as a template for other state associations to use to push back against proposed legislation that could negatively impact the golf business.
The site includes statistics and facts about the benefits of golf, updates to the proposed legislation, a search engine to help California residents find their legislators and sample form letters that users can copy or download to send to them.
The SCGA Government Affairs web site offers a laundry list of resources to help educate residents on the issues and convince them to contact their legislators in opposition to the proposed law. . . . The site includes statistics and facts about the benefits of golf, updates to the proposed legislation, a search engine to help California residents find their legislators and sample form letters that users can copy or download to send to them.
AB 672, introduced in February by Cristina Garcia, who represents California's 58th district in Los Angeles County, targets municipal golf courses as potential sites for affordable housing units and open space, died in committee in April. However, the bill has been amended as of September 1 with changes, including an influx of public assistance and the elimination of certain zoning requirements. In a state starved for affordable housing, these changes likely will have mass appeal in California when the proposed legislation reappears in session in January as a two-year bill.
Initially, the bill proposed removing the state's municipal golf courses from the protections provided by the Park Preservation Act, Surplus Land Act, California Environmental Quality Control Act, and local zoning prerogatives – all for the purpose of redeveloping them into housing tracts.
The newest version of AB 672 makes available $50 million from the state's general fund "to provide grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties to incentivize making publicly owned golf courses in densely populated areas available for housing and publicly accessible open space," the bill states. The most recent iteration of the bill also removed zoning requirements and the need for an environmental impact statement in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Initially, AB 672 was referred to the Assembly's Housing and Community Development Committee and Local Government Committee, but did not meet the April 30 deadline to pass through both, and died in committee.
