Opinion

Golf courses provide ready site for SF affordable housing

A water sprinkler with a kicker is seen watering grass at No. 10 Tee at the Gleneagles Golf Course on Monday, July 7, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. The area at No. 10 Tee is outfitted with 4 water heads but one sprinkler with a kicker is being used in order to conserve water. less A water sprinkler with a kicker is seen watering grass at No. 10 Tee at the Gleneagles Golf Course on Monday, July 7, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. The area at No. 10 Tee is outfitted with 4 water heads but ... more Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Golf courses provide ready site for SF affordable housing 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

San Francisco has tried historically to solve its affordable housing shortage through stop-gap measures that many believe to be counterproductive. What Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors might consider is an independent task force to examine the feasibility of building affordable housing on some of the city’s six public golf courses that sit on more than 3,000 acres.

If half of the public golf courses were available for development, San Francisco could build up to 160,000 affordable housing units.

San Francisco has nine golf courses, six of which are public. The number of golfers, however, is declining in part due to changing demographics, including tech workers, renters and homeowners who prefer other sports to golf.

Many propositions for addressing inadequate affordable housing ignore the reality that San Francisco, unlike Los Angeles or San Jose, is surrounded on three sides by water. Therefore, measures that seek to overturn the laws of supply and demand either don’t work or work for some at great harm to others.

A growing number of advocates, although not a majority yet of advocates for affordable housing, recognize that long term, we must work within a free enterprise, entrepreneurial, for-profit society that recognizes that it may be in its self-interest to have a vibrant city that reflects all ethnicities and all income levels.

The three largest golf courses account for 1,330 acres. If the high-density zoning laws for South of Market were used, each acre could include up to 150 housing units. These units could all include public open spaces and recreation centers. They could also be tied to a new transit system that could bring workers to downtown within 20 minutes. This would clearly be of interest to developers presently facing community opposition, years of delay and millions of dollars in penalties.

The key question is, what impact would this have on the city’s golfers?

Probably zero, since three public golf courses would remain, as would three private courses in San Francisco and another 44 within short driving distance of the city.

More than 100 years ago, San Francisco’s planners took a comparable step by barring the building of more cemeteries within the city on the grounds that the land was too valuable for cemeteries. It is a similar situation that we confront now. What’s a few golf courses in exchange for some 160,000 units of affordable housing?

Vivian Zalvidea Araullo is the executive director at West Bay Pilipino Multi Service Center that provides services to underserved Filipino and other ethnic minority youth.