To the editor:
The Oak Hills Park Authority (OHPA) recently received a $1.5 million dollar grant from the taxpayers of the state that it intends to use to upgrade the golf course and prepare the ground for a large commercial driving range that it euphemistically refers to as a “golf learning center.”
Now it is seeking another $1 million from Norwalk taxpayers in the form of loan forgiveness.
That is a total of $2.5 million for a golf course that makes nearly all of Oak Hills Park inaccessible to those that do not play golf.
But the $2.5 million is just grease on the skids. Indeed, if all goes as it plans, the Authority will soon be coming back to taxpayers for an additional $3 million to $4 million “loan” to construct the driving range. And no doubt that “loan,” too, if it is approved by the Common Council, will have to be restructured and then forgiven down the road.
Say what? Millions of our taxpayer dollars have been subsidizing a golf course that can’t generate enough income to cover its costs?
Yep.
And now the Common Council is contemplating giving the Authority another million so it can prepare the ground for a driving range?
Yep.
And once everything is in place the Common Council may end up loaning the OHPA still more millions for a driving range?
Yep. In 1997, golfers convinced our elected officials to establish the OHPA and then lease to it the land in the park on the condition that it manage the golf course so that it covers its costs. But the Authority has not been able to manage the golf course so that it covers its costs. Hence the need for the grant and the appeal for loan forgiveness and the chimera of a driving range that will solve all its financial problems.
But the driving range won’t solve the OHPA’s financial problems. And according to Thomas Vorio, its former superintendent, the Authority knows it won’t. Nevertheless, it is trying to persuade the Common Council that, because Sterling Farms’ driving range in Stamford makes money, its proposed driving range will do so as well.
But, unlike Sterling Farms, Oak Hills is “off the beaten path.” Hence, Total Driving Range Solutions (TDRS), a firm the OHPA hoped would construct the driving range, couldn’t come up with financing for it. The drawbacks to a driving range in Oak Hills are just too great:
- It would have to compete with the more conveniently located Sterling Farms driving range.
- Oak Hills does not have the space to conveniently accommodate a large commercial driving range. Indeed when Tad King of King Golf International was shown the area where the OHPA plans to locate its “golf-learning center,” he remarked, “you can’t even achieve mediocrity with the lay of the land. It’s too narrow. I’ve been in the business long enough, I know you can’t make money there. It’s not possible … Oak Hills has a serious congestion problem.”
- A driving range in the park would tee off golfers who would have to compete with its patrons for parking spaces.
- A driving range with its high, ugly nets would be an eyesore. And its construction would require many trees to be cut down. Hence, it would make playing the golf course less enjoyable for all those who care about the environment and aesthetics.
- A driving range in the park would undermine the residential quality of the neighborhood in which Oak Hills Park is located.
Despite Herculean efforts, therefore, neither TDRS nor the OHPA could convince a bank to loan it money to construct the driving range. In other words, no private sector lender could be persuaded that a driving range in Oak Hills Park would generate enough income to cover the cost of constructing it.
Still, undeterred, the Authority is determined to convince the Common Council that the banks are wrong. And, to bolster that claim, it has come up with a new financial analysis as riddled with errors and filled with pap[1] as its former master plan.
Clearly, the time has come for the OHPA to be abolished. Last year, according to Walter J. Englert Jr., a certified public accountant, it “incurred a deficit of $107,672 … which raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” And even the Authority itself admits that the financial problems facing it “are serious.”
But what it is unwilling to accept is that a large commercial driving range will compound those problems not help solve them. Hopefully, however, when all is said and done, the Common Council will determine that Oak Hills Park should be turned over to the Recreation and Parks department so that it can be managed in the interest of all the residents of the city not just the 10 percent that play golf.[2]
Of course, there is a cost to maintaining a public park. But an environmentally friendly multi-use public park near its center is one thing Norwalk sorely lacks. And such a park would add to the quality of life in our city and, hence, all of our property values. And it wouldn’t require millions of dollars in “loans” and grants to maintain. Indeed, unlike the golf course, its cost would be measured in thousand of dollars, not millions. And its benefits would be shared by all the residents of the city, not just the 10 percent that play golf.
[1] The Authority’s Financial Analysis kicks off with these Words of Wisdom: “The number eighteen is symbolically meaningful because it is the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word chai, which means life.” Then it points out “a general rule of thumb in commercial restaurant real estate lending is that rental income should provide for debt service coverage of at least 1.35% of actual debt payments.” Of course, the general rule of thumb is that rental income should provide debt service coverage of at least 135% not 1.35%. Was that just a typo? Or was it an indication of innumeracy on the part of whoever drafted the document?
Worth noting also is that the OHPA’s financial analysis blames all of its problems on the debt it took on to construct a restaurant building, completely ignoring the 44% drop in resident rounds played at Oak Hills from 38,918 rounds in 2002 to 21,618 rounds last year. The debt it took on to construct the restaurant, in other words, is not the primary cause of its financial problems. The primary cause of its financial problems is the dramatic decrease in the demand to play 18-holes of golf by residents and non-residents alike.
[2] “In the end, there is no justification whatsoever for government involvement in the golf business. Even if one subscribes to the idea of market failure, certainly none of the criteria for such failure – i.e., monopoly, public goods, external costs, or inadequate information – exist in the case of golf courses. The only reasons for the existence of government golf courses are patronage (another opportunity for politicians to dole out jobs), special-interest pressures (some golfers want cheap golf, courtesy of the taxpayers), and government revenue (politicians believe they can make money with golf facilities).” – Raymond Keating, http://fee.org/freeman/detail/fore-watch-out-for-government-golf
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