The current lease dramatically expands the renovation project
The massive renovation of the historic golf course will include construction of several new buildings and reconfiguration of the playable areas. The foundation has promised a driving range and a new education center opening to the public in 2023. A new nine-hole course, a short course, and an 18-hole championship course capable of hosting PGA Tour events are expected to open in 2024.
The city originally signed a lease for the Cobbs Creek Golf Course renovation with the foundation in 2019. But the foundation later realized how time-consuming the changes to the floodplain and creeks — and obtaining the necessary approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the city’s Water Department — were going to be. The foundation determined that it would need to lower the depth of a 50-acre floodplain to prevent floodwaters from reaching the course itself, as well as cut “several hundred” trees for the course reconfiguration. The foundation also discovered a private oil pipeline on the property, which it wants the owner to move to a lower depth.
The 2019 lease outlined $20 million in initial renovations, which the foundation had raised by the end of last year. But the foundation now says initial renovations will cost more than three times that: $65 million.
The foundation has begun preparing the site for construction, but still has several things to check off its to-do list. Two items required by the lease that the foundation still needs to submit to the city are a capital replacement schedule and a capital reserve account.
Residents will pay less than out-of-towners to play. The city still doesn’t know how much
A discounted rate for Philadelphia residents, compared to visitors from the region or across the country, was one of the mandates of the 2018 ordinance that authorized the city to negotiate the lease agreement.
The lease requires the foundation to tell the Department of Parks & Recreation what it plans to charge city residents ahead of time. Once the foundation submits the fees, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell will have to approve them. If the parties disagree, the Parks and Recreation Commission will get the final say.
The fees city residents will pay can increase by no more than 2% per year, or the rate of inflation, whichever is greater.
The lease agreement also includes a community access and engagement plan that promises Philadelphia residents will be given preference for some tee times. Golf clubs and other equipment will be offered to residents at low or no cost. Youth will be able to play for free or “minimal cost” through the First Tee program.
The plan promises job and scholarship opportunities “targeted to the golf course’s immediate vicinity,” and “an active role” for members of the surrounding communities in designing the programming vision for the new Education Center. It promises meeting space at the golf course will be available for community use.
If the foundation does not comply with its community access and engagement plan, it’s considered a default on the lease — but one that can be corrected.
The Water Department should be involved in the foundation’s stream restoration plans
The lease stipulates that the foundation must use “best faith efforts” to alter Cobbs Creek in a way that “to the greatest extent reasonably possible” minimizes flooding not only on the site but in areas upstream and downstream. But the details of the foundation’s plans to reduce flooding and erosion are not yet clear.
A significant part of the foundation’s plan to renovate the often-waterlogged course is to “restore and rebuild” more than three miles of Cobbs Creek and its tributaries by removing invasive vegetation, creating up to 37 acres of wetland including 10 square miles of drainage areas, and removing sediment from the creek beds. City officials maintain this will address flooding in surrounding residential communities, but advocates have raised concerns about the potential impact on communities downstream.
The lease requires the foundation to “eliminate” impervious surfaces on the property and replace them with surfaces that water can sink into rather than run off, which should reduce flooding.
The city Water Department will need to approve the foundation’s design plans for its floodplain restoration project. The lease also requires the foundation to submit these plans to the department when they are 30% and 60% done.
So far, the Water Department has approved an erosion and sediment control plan for the foundation’s first phase of work, including the tree removal, which Soukup said is compliant with state requirements. The Water Department also plans to review post-construction stormwater management plans after each phase of the foundation’s project.
The foundation is still designing the wetlands area and will be applying for federal, state and local permits, Rodriguez said.
“All obligations included in the lease can be waived at any time at the discretion of the land owner, which sometimes occurs in the course of carrying out a major capital project,” Soukup wrote in an emailed statement.