The City of Rochester Parks & Recreation Department team will present four reports for the municipal golf courses to the Park Board during their regular monthly meeting on July 12, 2022. The concepts were developed via direction provided to City staff by a resolution adopted by the Rochester City Council on February 7, 2022. The Park Board meeting will be held at the Mayo Civic Center in Room 101 from 4:30-7:00 p.m. No formal action will be taken during the meeting, as this is an informational item.
The presentation will focus on the reports for Hadley Creek, Northern Hills and Eastwood golf courses. The Soldiers Field report was presented during the June Park Board meeting as a part of the Master Plan Update process. Each of the reports will contain information on the opportunities and challenges associated with repositioning each course and potential high-level future uses for each course. The review also includes options to retain all four courses in addition to potential alternative uses, and programming strategies on each of the four golf course sites.
Paul Widman, Director of Parks & Recreation shared, “We appreciate having the opportunity to utilize the Park Board meeting to ensure that the members and community are provided information as we move into forthcoming engagement activities. This is the next step in the process requested by the City Council stemming from the National Golf Foundation review and analysis of municipal golf in our community.”
These activities are occurring due to the request placed within the resolution adopted by the City Council, which asks for the exploration of the following for the golf program:
- Maintain existing complement of courses and develop a strategy to fund the recommended $722,500 per year to support the Capital Improvement Projects and the appropriate level of annual operating support, as well as the cost of additional operations needed (e.g. maintenance staffing, marketing, other service level enhancements) to maintain the complement of courses and better preserve the value of new investment in an improved system.
- Optimize the Rochester Municipal Golf System by repositioning a course and a) evaluate the opportunities and challenges associated with repositioning each, and b) identify high-level future uses for each, and c) assess the long-term financial impact associated with maintaining or repositioning each.
- Maintain the existing complement of courses with the current level of funding and identify service and user experience reductions needed overtime.
The Park Board meeting will take place July 12, 2022 at the Mayo Civic Center in Room 101 from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. A recording of the meeting will be available via the City website the following day.
The Soldiers Field evaluation was included in the June Park Board meeting presentation as a part of the Master Plan Update. That presentation can be found here. The report from Mayor Norton’s Working Group can be found here.
