ROBERT TRENT JONES II
Golf Course Design and Recreational Plannlng

July 27, 1993

To the Board of Supervisors
of San Mateo County:


This afternoon the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether San Mateo County's Edgewood Park will be available for the full range of Recreational purposes that was anticipated by the County's General plan, for the benefit of the entire public, or the Park will continue to serve as an exclusive, extended back yard for a handful of the County's wealthiest citizens. As a golf course designer, I have often labored to accommodate environmental interest with recreational uses of public and private property, and I urge you to reject the false antithesis between environmental and recreational values that is asserted as the supposed basis for opposition to building a golf course on part of Edgewood Park. Because the purported environmental concerns are in fact a smokescreen for the private advantage of the most privileged residents of this County, the Board should reject their selfish efforts essentially to reserve a public resource for their own personal uses.

In reality, the environmental findings referred to in the Environmental Impact Report have not yet been properly studied through appropriate golf course design techniques. Further, insofar as the Report professes to offer an assessment concerning the level of demand for a golf course in the area or golf course site analysis, and insofar as the Report seeks to weigh the significance of competing interests involved in the Board's anticipated decision, it illustrates that the Thomas Reid organization exceeded the scope of both its assignment and its expertise. We do not, at this time, challenge the Report's conclusion regarding the mapping of the areas that must be designed around in order to avoid an adverse impact on the protected butterfly species. But this does not dispose of the issue Of whether a golf course can be built on part of the Edgewood Park.

The actual facts regarding the appropriateness of a golf course on Edgewood Park are as follows:

When the 467 acres for Edgewood Park were acquired--in part with U.S. Department of the Interior resources--it was specifically anticipated that the range of public, recreational uses for part of this land would include a golf course. That recognition was embodied in the County's General Plan, which specifies that a "range of recreation and/or preservation functions" would be accommodated. Indeed, the General Plan expressly recognizes that golf courses are included within such uses.


A reliable analysis indicates an unmet demand for nearly 600,000 rounds each year in and around San Mateo County. The Economics Research Associates' Feasibllity Analysis (which the County itself commissioned) confirmed the demand and need for a course in San Mateo County. Insofar as Thomas Reid and Associates' comments suggest anything to the contrary, they are simply baseless.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area's apparent objection to allowlng an adjoining property to be used for access to a golf course in no way suggests that a course cannot be built on Edgewood Park; it is merely another design consideration.

An appropriately designed golf course may, in my professional judgement, potentially be feasible for this site without injury to the environmental interests which must be protected, through mitigation, but that possibility has not been properly studied.

The current uses of the Edgewood Park are narrow and primarily benefit the "horsey" set of residents of Woodside and other wealthy communities who prefer to keep ordinary people out of what they regard as their own back yard. Notwithstanding, building a golf course on part of the Edgewood Park would accomplish precisely what was intended when the land was acquired for the Park--enhancing a range of public uses.

I urge the Board not to hastily foreclose this possibility, and to defer a resolution of uses that the Edgewood Park may he put to until appropriate design studies have been concluded. The Board should also recognize that the opponents of a golf course have merely wrapped the flag of environmentalism around themselves. The real interest of the environment and of most County residents are better served by permitting a balance of uses of Edgewood Park, including the golf course recommended by Edgewood Park Citizens Committee.

ROBERT TRENT JONES II
(signature)
Robert Trent Jones, Jr,
President

 

703 Forest Avenue Palo Alto, California 94301-3833 415/326-3833 Telex 345-514 TRENJONES PLA FAX 415/326-3877