City officials in Wichita, Kan. planned to hold an emergency meeting on June 22 to vote on a proposal to close the course, after the Wichita Park Board recommended that the property be used for commercial/housing development. It would be the second public course in the city to close in the past four years.
There could soon be one less public golf course in Wichita, Kan., station KWCH CBS 12 of Wichita reported.
Wichita city officials planned to hold an emergency meeting on June 22 to vote on a proposal to close L.W. Clapp Golf Course, KWCH reported. The Wichita Park Board meeting on the issue was scheduled to take place at City Hall at 4 p.m. on June 22, and had been moved to a larger room because of anticipated attendance by those with interest in the issue.
The course would be the second public course in Wichita to close in four years. In late 2014, Wichi ta State University closed its Braeburn Golf Course to make room for its new Innovation Campus.
The Wichita Park Board has recommended that Clapp be closed, KWCH reported, so it can be used for commercial/housing development. The Park Director has said that it’s the city’s worst-performing golf course and that by keeping it open, it’s hindering all the courses across the city.
Neighbors in the area said the possible decision to close the course caught them off guard, KWCH reported, and that they’re worried about the future of the land.
L.W. Clapp GC is the smallest of Wichita’s five public courses and one that neighbors say is excellent for players who are just beginning to take up golf, KWCH reported.
Jim Skelton, President of the East Mount Vernon Neighborhood Association, told KWCH that he wants to have a discussion with city leaders before they decide to take away a public asset.
“This has the potential to impact the whole nature of this area,” Skelton said. “It could affect the lives of citizens down here. This is a public resource, it’s been part of southeast Wichita, it’s a part of the character of the neighborhood [and] it’s like having our carpet ripped out from under our feet.”
The Wichita Eagle reported that the Park Board recommendation calls for only part of the land to be sold for development, with the remainder, which is in an unbuildable flood plain, kept for another type of park use other than golf.
A report by Parks Director Troy Houtman said that closing Clapp would just about make up for a $579,000 operating deficit projected for next year in the city’s overall golf system, The Eagle reported.
The course has run a total of about $600,000 in the red since 2013, including a $235,000 operating deficit last year, the report said.
“It’s a tough decision and something nobody likes to do,” Houtman told The Eagle. “But if I don’t have the money, I can’t operate it.”
City golf courses are supposed to be self-supporting, Houtman added. But a shortfall would eventually have to be made up from general tax funds, he said.
As of June 21, The Eagle reported, city officials were still unclear as to who actually has authority to close the course.
Although the Park Board is part of city government, it used to be a separate elected body and it technically holds title to the course, City Council member Bryan Frye told The Eagle.
Frye said he thinks that gives the Park Board the authority to shut down Clapp, The Eagle reported, although the City Council would have to be involved in any subsequent redevelopment of the site.
But Houtman told The Eagle that he plans to present the closure to the Park Board as a recommendation to the City Council. He said he thinks the council will need to sign off on the decision, because course operating funds go through the city budget.
The council was briefed recently on financial problems in the golf fund, but Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell said he was surprised the Park Board called a special meeting to take up closing the course.
“They don’t bounce that off of us,” Longwell told The Eagle, indicating that he was noncommittal on whether closing Clapp is a good idea.
“I haven’t had a chance to fully evaluate it,” the mayor said. “I know we’re losing money, so what I need to know is what is the best way to assure that community has a great green-space asset.”
Longwell said that some area residents have told him that “a park with some amenities would probably benefit the community more than a golf course, because many of the folks that live around that can’t use the golf course. They’re not golfers,”
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