Sydney golf courses: how many is too many?
The Sydney golf course debate – how many is too many? – could be reignited after City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said she would consider subsidising the cost of reducing the size of Moore Park Golf Course.
Rapid residential development occurring in pockets of Sydney is compelling local governments and city planners to look ever more lustily at the city’s remaining slabs of open land.
And adjacent to the tens of thousands of apartments being built around Green Square, Rosebery and Zetland is a conspicuous plot of green currently used to either adorn, or ruin, a good Sydney walk.
The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, which controls Moore Park Golf Course, this month released a draft plan for the future of the area.
And although the plan talks about improving pedestrian and cycle access around the course, it does not propose reducing the size of the area alloted for golfing, or changing its use.
One of the issues for the Trust is that the course contributes about a quarter of the $24 million in revenue needed to run the parklands around Centennial and Moore parks.
But after meeting last week with the Trust’s executive director, Kim Ellis, Cr Moore is floating a potential salve for that issue.
“Across the world, golf courses are slimming down to a modern nine-hole format. I’m open to working with the state to investigate options for reducing the size of the golf course at Moore Park and returning some of that land to the community,” Cr Moore said, adding that more than 60,000 people were moving into apartments in the neighbouring area.
“I’m prepared to consider working with the state to balance lost revenue from golf – however, backing the park financially would require proportionate seats on the Board of the Trust, as well as shared responsibility with the state government,” the mayor, who faces a potentially tough election battle in September, said.
Click here to read full story
