Photo from Goodman and Farrelly of wildlife habitat which would be lost

For years now, a simmering (and sometimes boiling) issue for Rockville has been what to do about the Redgate Golf Course. Tonight, the Mayor and Council are slated to discuss and make decisions about it. A number of options are on the table, and still more may well be considered. Here’s my perspective.

Redgate used to make money, but for the past few years it has lost money. A business plan designed to turn things around has so far not been successful. In part, that may be because it has not been executed effectively, but the overall market conditions for golf are very poor right now.

Unlike other recreational amenities in Rockville, Redgate’s accounting has been separated out as its own fund, so the taxpayer subsidy and revenues are easy to identify. That has made it, in the words of the Redgate Advisory Committee tasked with making recommendations to the Mayor and Council, “low hanging fruit” in these times of belt-tightening.

(The Redgate Advisory Committee, ably led by Joseph Jordan and Martha Klasing, submitted a report to the Mayor and Council last week.)

How low is the fruit hanging? According to Rockville Central contributor Art Stigile, who has been very thoughtfully examining the numbers closely, over a number of weeks, the subsidy to Redgate is $883,740 (that’s its deficit plus administrative expenses). Compare that to the subsidy to the Rockville Swim Center, which is $675,323.

For perspective, the City’s overall budget is $104.9 million. So Redgate is less than 1% of the City’s budget.

Cases On Both Sides

Both sides in this debate make fair points.

On the one hand, running a golf course is expensive, and benefits relatively few people directly (roughly 35,000 rounds are played per year, compared to something over 110,000 visits to the Rockville Swim Center per year). We certainly could do other things with the money.

On the other hand, Redgate has developed a fiercely loyal following among many golfers, who say it is a course that is really only now “coming into its own,” and is viewed as one of the better courses in the region. It is an open space that is maintained and accessible to most anyone. And, the City has plenty of amenities that are used far less than the Swim Center, for instance one resident recently pointed out on a neighborhood email list that the Senior Center is frequently empty.

“Game Changers”

I’ve heard members of the Mayor and Council say that, if we are going to do something with Redgate, it ought to be a real “game changer” for the City. In other words, it ought to be something that places Rockville on the map such that, when folks in California or Michigan hear “Rockville,” they think of whatever Redgate becomes. I used to agree with this, but I thought about what a “game changer” would really look like. I thought about the small- and medium-size cities in other states that I know about in the same way we’re talking about. They are either college towns, or they are commercial or cultural destinations.

My favorite use for the Redgate land would be to create a small, highly selective, four year liberal arts college. But I’m told there isn’t quite enough land, and the climate to start a new college is tougher than it is for golf. Plus, we’ve got those satellite Universities-at-Shady-Grove establishments a stone’s throw away. They are not direct competitors to what I am imagining, but they do make the space crowded in terms of gaining a foothold. So, we’re not likely to get a new Swarthmore College here in Rockville.

Another possible new use would be to make Redgate a commercial destination. The best one I can think of would be to create an awesome, upscale mall. Yes, I’m serious. (I’m an odd duck: I actually like malls.) The Maryland side of the Capital region has nothing to match the commercial splendor that is Tyson’s. Montgomery Mall, the closest competitor, is sort of sad by comparison. This option, though, has myriad problems, not the least of which is the fact that probably none of my friends and neighbors would go for it. The main problems I see are that there isn’t enough room to really execute an awesome mall, and the road access is insufficient. (We’d need an I-270 exit onto Gude, and would need to beef that road up – not to mention the improvements to access we’d need to make on Norbeck/MD-28 from the Pike.) No, I don’t see a mall happening.

So that leads to a “cultural destination.” That means, in other words, and awesome performance space. People have pointed to Wolftrap as an icon for that. However, here again we’ve got a problem. There’s not enough space to create something like Merriweather Post Pavilion, and Rockville (adjacent) already has an awesome smaller performance space: The Music Center at Strathmore. I am hard pressed to think of something we could create that would go beyond what Strathmore offers.

Big Facilities

There’s one final “game changer” that has been discussed, in various forms. That would be some kind of arena-style event site. People have talked about a baseball stadium, a soccer complex, a high-school graduation venue, and more.

I can see the attraction of this idea. We could create something that fills a regional need and generates some revenue for the City. Done right, we could keep at least some of the open space the course now represents.

However, a site designed specifically for large-scale events would create more traffic hassles than even the crazy Awesome Mall idea would – because the traffic would all be happening at the same time. And, there are a number of behavior problems that come along with large event spaces that the surrounding neighborhoods would need to deal with.

Parks And Open Space

Another option that is on the table involves keeping the Redgate open space, but removing the golf component. That would mean either turning it into a park, or basically just letting the land go (after a few years of invasive species maintenance).

I see two problems with this approach. First, the park option is duplicative. There’s already a massive park right there – Lake Needwood. Turning Redgate into park would essentially make it invisible. It would be seen as part of Lake Needwood.

Letting the land go “back to nature,” in my view, is a non starter – and is the kind of move that cities do when they just have no other options. My hometown of Detroit recently did that with its Rouge Park, basically giving up on it. I would not want to visit the area now unless I were with others and packing heat. While a “back-to-nature” option for Redgate would probably not result in the same thing, I do think it is an invitation to a host of enforcement problems that we don’t now have. If we get into the same troubles that Detroit is in, maybe we might consider this — but not now. It’s a move we can’t easily undo.

My Take: Keep The Golf Course

Having considered just about all the options I could think of, here’s my perspective.

Redgate Golf Course is an unusual asset and, as municipal golf courses go, is an example of best-of-breed. There is an economic downturn that’s impacting everything, but it won’t last. In fact, word came out today that, officially, the recession ended June 2009.

As the economy picks up, Redgate’s revenues will bounce back. It may never support itself, and I don’t think it should be asked to. It’s one of the wonderful City amenities that makes Rockville a great City.

We should keep Redgate essentially as-is — an excellent municipally-owned golf course.

It is an open question as to who should run Redgate as a golf course. Maybe different execution could give us a bump in revenue. However, the current management and staff are part of what makes Redgate a City amenity and not just some golf course. So I would hesitate to contract out operations if that would mean suddenly the course gets a corporate feel.

(I do have one thought about a possible change. I don’t know how much space this would take, but if there were a way to develop a high-end conference center (a retreat-like atmosphere, not just a convention space) without impacting the course too greatly, I think that could be useful. Many corporate and other high-level retreats and offsite meetings benefit from being close to golf. And for the non-golfers, an easy shuttle to Lake Needwood provides other recreation activities.)

While we have budget problems right now, they are nowhere near those faced by other jurisdictions. We don’t need to take extreme measures – we need to figure out how to ride out the next five years or so until things bounce back.

If we trade away Redgate because we’re tightening our belts, I worry we’ll look back and find that a short-sighted move.

That’s just my opinion, and I welcome what other people have to say!

Note: This is just Brad’s personal opinion, not the institutional view of Rockville Central.

Others, who believe the City is managing Town Center poorly, say that if only we had different policies, more businesses would stay open.

I take a different view. While I regret each business closure, I also know that many, if not most, start ups don’t succeed. I’ve read that three out of four restaurants close — and Town Square has a lot of restaurants. Looked at in context, Town Square is doing well. Yes, some businesses fail, and some are struggling. Others are thriving.

Rather than imagine what went wrong, I would prefer to look at what is going right and try to do more of it.

In today’s Gazette roundup of business closures — and their replacements — my friend Stephen Schadler of the Austin Grill has a very useful reminder:

“When you have a development like Town Square you put in a mix of retail and restaurants that you think will be successful; however, you’re never going to get that perfect the first time around. . . . There’s always going to be those businesses even in the best of economic times that are going to struggle and not make it one way or another. The hope is you bring in new merchants so that you can continue trying to get that right mix and give consumers what they’re demanding.”

Remember, every turnover is an opportunity to refine and create a successful mix.