Replace San Francisco's golf courses with affordable housing
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
By Vivian Zalvidea Araullo
San Francisco has tried historically to solve its affordable housing shortage through stop-gap measures that many believe to be counterproductive. What Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors might consider is an independent task force to examine the feasibility of building affordable housing on some of the city’s six public golf courses that sit on more than 3,000 acres. If half of the public golf courses were available for development, San Francisco could build up to 160,000 affordable housing units.
San Francisco has nine golf courses, six of which are public. The number of golfers, however, is declining in part due to changing demographics, including tech workers, renters and homeowners who prefer other sports to golf.
... The three largest golf courses account for 1,330 acres. If the high-density zoning laws for South of Market were used, each acre could include up to 150 housing units. These units could all include public open spaces and recreation centers. They could also be tied to a new transit system that could bring workers to downtown within 20 minutes. This would clearly be of interest to developers presently facing community opposition, years of delay and millions of dollars in penalties.
The key question is, what impact would this have on the city’s golfers? Probably zero, since three public golf courses would remain, as would three private courses in San Francisco and another 44 within short driving distance of the city.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Golf-courses-provide-ready-site-for-SF-affordable-5861939.php
Vivian Zalvidea Araullo is the executive director at West Bay Pilipino Multi Service Center that provides services to underserved Filipino and other ethnic minority youth.
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