A bill proposed by a state assemblywoman would give California cities a financial incentive to convert publicly owned golf courses into affordable housing with some space still reserved for recreation.
Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) reintroduced Assembly Bill 1910 in Sacramento on Feb. 9. If passed, it would provide grant money to cities that decide to repurpose their municipal golf courses. Garcia has requested $50 million be allocated from the state budget each year for three years to fund the bill.
The exact dollar figure cities could receive for converting their golf courses hasn’t been ironed out yet, but the funds would be distributed by the Department of Housing and Community Development and based on the number of affordable units being constructed.
“Studies show low-income communities & communities of color lack access to open space and lack housing security,” Garcia tweeted. “#AB1910 will chip away at these two injustices to help ensure that everyone is safely housed AND has open space to recreate.”
To receive the grant funding, any planned developments would have to reserve 25% of units for low-income households. The bill also requires at least 15% of any development is publicly accessible open space (any area still used for golf doesn’t count), including parks, sports fields, playgrounds and trails. According to the bill, no more than one-third of the remaining square footage can be dedicated to non-residential use; under the conditions of AB 1910, parking is considered non-residential.
The way corresponding grant money is spent will be up to each city that opts in, with the intent that they prioritize constructing affordable housing and open space.
Of the 921 golf courses in California, approximately 22% are municipally owned, according to Garcia’s office. Long Beach has five publicly-owned golf courses located within a three-mile radius of one another; all are in East Long Beach where housing costs have soared, along with the rest of the city.
Because the bill requires cities to opt-in to receive the funding, it’s unclear if Long Beach would be interested in taking part in the program.
Garcia hopes that, if passed, the implementation of AB 1910 will be community-led and be used to create spaces that each community in California needs. In dense areas like Bell Gardens, for instance, there is not much room to create open space or affordable housing elsewhere, the assemblywoman said.
“We have so many pressing needs around housing and open space for communities like mine. … I believe there is a space to still have some municipally owned golf courses but I don’t believe we need as many as we have,” Garcia said.
According to Garcia, there has been some opposition from the golf community because of a misrepresentation surrounding the bill that it would force the conversion of public golf courses, but the choice is up to each individual jurisdiction.
Like so many cities across the state, Long Beach is struggling with soaring housing costs. According to the city’s Development Services Department, 43% of all households are cost-burdened in Long Beach, meaning they pay more than 30% of their monthly income toward rent or a mortgage. And more than 20,000 Long Beach residents live in overcrowded conditions, a burden that disproportionately affects communities of color.
The city of Long Beach is required to build or preserve at least 26,502 housing units by 2029 to comply with its state-mandated Housing Element plan, and nearly 60% of those units must be affordable.
The city’s proposed plan includes allowing housing on more parcels identified in “high resource” areas like East Long Beach along with an inclusionary housing policy that will require developers to reserve a percentage of new units for lower-income households. During the last cycle, the city met only 17% of its affordable housing requirements.
AB 1910 is the second iteration of AB 672 that got through the Housing and Community Development Committee and the Local Government Committee last year but was stopped at the House Committee on Appropriations. Garcia said her team has had discussions with the Appropriations Committee to ensure that they can keep the bill moving through the approval process.