San Diego is considering new management for Tecolote Canyon Golf Course, leaving some community stakeholders concerned about the future of the site.
A city committee will take up the issue at 9 a.m. Wednesday as part of a review of City Hall’s management of its golf course portfolio, which includes eight leased sites.
The Tecolote Canyon course, though, has closed while the city completes work on an extensive sewer upgrade. It had been limited to just nine holes as the project continued, but with the closure, only the driving range will be open.
Shuttering the course has prompted fears that it could be “closed forever” and that the abandoned site could then attract “our homeless neighbors” or become a fire risk.
Councilmember Jen Campbell, in addressing the closure, tried to assure the community and those who golf there that the site will continue to be used for the sport.
“The golf course will remain a golf course,” she said in a statement posted on social media Monday, “and the city is in the process of preparing a Request for Proposals for a new lease after the completion of the ongoing infrastructure repairs.”
The new lease is needed because the city decided in January to end its long association with American Golf Course Corporation. The city’s 35-year lease with the corporation ended in 2022, but since that time had been renewed month-to-month.
Campbell called it “the right time” to discontinue the lease to align “with the city’s ongoing real estate strategy to attract new investment and responsibly manage city-owned assets …” In the end, she said, the decision will “enhance long-term revenue and public benefit.”
Her stance echoes one of the findings in the city’s performance audit of its golf courses, that officials should “collect and report performance data on its leased golf courses to assess lessee performance and maximize city revenue and public benefit.”
The audit also contends that the city’s leased golf courses are at risk of deterioration and reduced value due to a “lack of regular site inspections and ongoing holdovers.” The latter refers to expired leases that shift to month-to-month management.
According to the report, the city owns eight golf courses, both in and outside city boundaries, that are leased to private and non-profit operators. During the 2024 fiscal year, the courses generated $34.7 million in revenue for operators, with $3.7 million paid to the city in rent.
That year, a quarter of the lease revenue generated by the Tecolote Canyon course was returned to the city – $735,293. Another course, Mission Trails, returned 22% in revenues to the city, or $1.11 million.
Two other sites, though, Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and Vineyard in Escondido, drew in significant revenues, despite contracts that called for much smaller slices of the pie.
Fairbanks Ranch, required to pay 5% of its revenues to the city, generated $863,498. Vineyard pays 11% of its take to the city, almost $655,000.
In the last fiscal year, the Fairbanks Ranch course far outpaced the other courses in total lease revenues, at $16.7 million. Vineyard came in at $5.7 million and Mission Trails at $4.96 million. Tecolote Canyon trailed at just shy of $3 million.
One possible reason for the stark difference in returns, the city auditor’s office concluded, is that ”capital improvement provisions are included inconsistently across the city’s golf course leases and it is unclear if capital needs have been considered in every lease negotiation.”
The city’s share of revenue from its leased golf courses are split among two funds – the general fund and the water fund. Revenue from city-operated golf courses is allocated to the golf fund, which supports their operations and maintenance.
The City Council’s Audit Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, will consider the results of the audit on Wednesday.
