Californians: Help Oppose AB 672
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A bizarre California assembly bill that briefly appeared and never went away apparently needs to public input immediately.
If you’re a Californian, the SCGA makes it quite easy to write to your state assembly member in advance of a January 12th hearing. Here is the synopsis from the SCGA and where you can easily contact your representatives:
AB 672 (Public Golf Endangerment Act) would require California’s Department of Housing & Community Development “to administer a program to provide incentives in the form of grants to local agencies that enter into a development agreement to convert a golf course owned by the local agency into housing and publicly accessible open space; space used as a golf course shall not be considered open space." That’s 22% of the state’s golf stock that hosts upwards of 45% of the state’s golf play and roughly 90% of the game’s growth and diversity programs. It singles golf and only golf out for dismemberment; no other park, open space or land preservation use is similarly jeopardized, guaranteeing that golf and only golf will be sacrificed up for redevelopment. Your opinion is the one that counts most with the legislators who will determine whether golf will be sacrificed up or treated the same as every other park and recreation activity in California. Let them know what you think; act today!
Here is the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance’s take:
A radical anti-golf attack in the guise of an “affordable housing” bill, California Assembly Bill 672, will be considered in January 2022 by two committees of the State Assembly – the Housing & Community Development and Local Government committees. The proposed law would appropriate $50 Million from the State General Fund as a bounty to entice cities to replace existing municipal golf courses in “densely populated areas” with high-density “affordable housing” developments. This appears intended as just the first step towards dismemberment of the State’s great network of municipal golf courses.
