COVID-19 - Legislative tab

9:00 a.m., Monday, March 22

LA COUNTY – COVID ADDENDUM


Knowing how many were waiting with bated breath for Los Angeles County’s updated “Golf Appendix,” we rushed it out late Thursday afternoon literally minutes after its release along with a summary of the key changes it envisaged for the play and practice of golf in the state’s largest county.

That document, which you can again access by clicking here, links to three (3) other documents that have since Thursday afternoon also been updated – the county’s general “Safer at Home” Tier order, the county’s “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order, and the county’s “Re-opening Restaurants” order, all of which apply to golf club/course functions that are not exclusive to golf courses but parts and parcels of nonetheless.

Today we share those three (3) documents for those who want to update their files and/or those who are policy wonks like us:

  • Click here for updated “Safer at Home” order.
  • Click here for updated “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order.
  • Click here for updated “Re-opening Restaurants” order.


GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS HUB COMING TO SCGA WEBSITE


SCGA has been working to create a substantial Governmental Affairs hub on scga.org. We hope to go live with it late this week, but as with all things technological if not this week, certainly not long thereafter. When it does go live you will be able to access these kinds of documents as well as a treasure trove of other documents, reports, and analyses regarding the intersection of golf and public policy quickly, seamlessly, and effortlessly. A way of ordering the disparate subjects covered in these Updates as it were.


AB 672 – SHOT ACROSS GOLF’S BOW


AB 672 (Garcia; D-Bell Gardens) is no longer a mere spot bill that envisages the changes in the Surplus Land and Public Park Preservation Acts that would allow municipal parkland golf courses to be repurposed as affordable housing tracts. It was amended late last week (published 11:30 PM Thursday night) as planning and zoning reauthorization law regarding golf courses. From the Legislative Counsel’s description of what its passage would mean:

  • Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires that the legislative body of each county and each city adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county and city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of any county or city, pursuant to specified procedures, to adopt ordinances that, among other things, regulate the use of buildings, structures, and land as between industry, business, residences, open space, and other purposes. Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. That law also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would authorize, on and after January 1, 2022, a city, county, or city and county to rezone sites used as a golf course to also allow for residential and open space use in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would exempt any ordinance, resolution, general or specific plan amendment, or other action necessary of the city, county, or city and county to rezone a site pursuant to the bill’s provisions from CEQA. The bill would remove, with respect to a city, county, or city and county, this rezoning authorization on the date the 6th regional housing needs assessment cycle applicable to the city, county, or city and county ends. The bill would require a development on a site that is rezoned for residential and open space use pursuant to the bill’s provisions to comply with specified requirements, including that a certain percentage of units developed on the site be available for persons and families of low income for a period of no less than 55 years, that a certain unit per acre density be met, and that a skilled and trained workforce is used to complete the development.

The California Alliance for Golf’s (CAG) Legislative Committee met Friday morning to discuss the implications of the meat now added to the bones of the original spot bill. And there are many, not the least of which are the ways in which it would appear that the author has restructured this attack on the state’s golf stock to obviate the need to amend the California Constitution’s ARTICLE XIII, Section 10 protections of the state’s private golf clubs or the Public Park Preservation Act’s protections of the state’s municipal golf courses.

Amending the Constitution requires a vote of the people. Compromising the Public Park Preservation Act runs the risk of inviting strong opposition from some of the state’s large municipal governments and environmental organizations. That leaves the daily fee market, which long ago all but disappeared from California’s large cities for the same economic reasons that this bill would seem to re-create well beyond the state’s urban cores. It may well jeopardize the non-equity club market as well, depending on how such clubs are structured and precisely how the specifics of a successful rezoning effort might be construed.

CAG and its constituent organizations are busy trying to analyze these “implications,” at least to the extent to which this particular parcel of uncharted territory is amenable to any degree of reliable analysis. One thing is clear, however. Assemblymember Garcia is intent on establishing some sort of beachhead in California law that would allow for the conversion of golf properties to housing. Just golf courses – not parks, land conservancies, sports fields, or any of the many other green spaces, both public and private, that might provide as much and in the case of land conservancies, considerably more acreage capable of hosting housing stock.

Expect to read and hear much more about AB 672 as 2021 unfolds. It promises to be a constantly moving target, and the “target” is golf.


DROUGHT AGAIN ON OUR HORIZON


The escape from COVID may not be a steady one. With variant strains of the virus proliferating and a still low percentage of the population vaccinated, there could be one more surge in the pandemic curve before life returns to some semblance of normal. However, even the most pessimistic of epidemiologists don’t predict anything resembling the December/January surge. Even then, as we correctly predicted in early December, when the state descended into the hyper-restrictions of the “Regional Stay at Home” order, golf remained open throughout.

Now, we can focus on the myriad other problems that beset the game, whether this new assault from AB 672 or golf’s constant foe – drought and the access/cost issues associated therewith.

Saturday was the 1st day of spring. We are 10 days away from the April 1 date that pretty much represents the end of the snow/rain season. From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over the weekend: “Drier conditions in the Southwest U.S. associated with La Niña and the failed 2020 summer monsoon have been contributing factors to the development and intensification of what represents the most significant U.S. spring drought since 2013.” Dry weather is expected to linger into the spring, with below average precipitation forecast across much of the West.

According to the NAOO, one of the contributing factors to the western drought has been lack of snowfall. The greatest area of snow drought expansion has been in the Sierra Nevada where no large storms have occurred since the strong atmospheric river in late January. This has left almost all of the Sierra Nevada weather stations below the 30th percentile of snow water equivalent and a few locations in the southern Sierra are below the 10th percentile.

Southern California imports the water it depends upon to sustain virtually everything from two main sources: The Sierra snowpack and the Colorado River. Recent record snowstorms in the Colorado Basin have provided some relief to that source but have not by any means moved the region out of a condition of drought. California’s reservoirs are still pretty full from previous years; however, they are going to be drawn down this summer and fall. Connect the dots. Unless the 2021-2022 rain/snow season is a good one, we are going to be looking down the barrel of the access and cost issues associated with drought just as we begin viewing the detritus of COVID-19 in our rear-view mirrors.

EUREKA

Los Angeles County Public Health (DPH) has updated its “Golf Appendix” to align the play and practice of golf with the rhythms of life in the “Red Tier” now that all Southern California counties save Kern have moved into that Tier and COVID caseloads are plummeting so fast that public health officials have begun to speculate that life in the “Orange Tier” is just around the corner – 1st half of April to be more specific.

Click here to read the “Appendix” as it now governs golf in Los Angeles County.

More accurately, click above to read the minimum standards that each city within LA County save the two with their own health departments (Long Beach and Pasadena) must follow. Los Angeles County’s other 86 cities, including the City of Los Angeles, are free to govern golf more strictly than these minimum standards. On at least two occasions we can recall the City of Los Angeles has done just that. Although we don’t anticipate Los Angeles doing that this time, we do need to remind LA City golfers and golf clubs that there is likely to be a lag between today’s order and implementation of that order in the county’s largest city. You’ve waited this long; waiting 48 more hours should be a snap.

Because DPH approached the revision of the golf specific “Appendix” as an exercise in aligning its protocols with the protocols in the “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order, the language is not the language golf would have used to identify the changes envisaged thereby. Nonetheless, it is language easily discernible in terms of what it means in practical terms for golf facilities, golf clubs, high schools, junior programs, competitions, group play, and practice putting/short game facilities.

Here is our snapshot summary of what it means:

  • The language that prohibited “group” and “tournament” play has been removed and been replaced by the following: “Golf competitions organized by youth or adult recreational sports leagues, club sports, travel sports, and private and public schools serving students in TK-12 schools may resume and must adhere to this protocol and the LACDPH Protocol for Youth and Adult Recreational Sports Leagues.” Translation: Because the prohibition on “shotgun” starts has been retained, this means that straight time start competitions conducted by organizations such as traditional men’s/women’s/senior golf clubs at public facilities, private golf clubs at their own sites, golf associations, and schools are now permitted. [Note: Colleges and pro sports are covered under separate protocols, and municipalities are likely to interpret the “organized” qualifier as limiting these competitions to the clubs/organizations that have long track records in conducting competitions at their facilities.]
  • Reservations are now highly encouraged but no longer mandatory; walk-up play is thus permitted but not to be encouraged.
  • Credit and debit/gift card payment is now highly encouraged but no longer mandatory; cash can be accepted as legal tender.
  • Practice putting and chipping/pitching greens are now open per the following restrictions: “Practice putting green cups are installed in a ‘touchless’ manner. Foam or another material may be inserted. At no time is the entire ball resting below the putting surface. No pins. No more than 2 golf balls may be used per player. Cups shall be installed no closer than 18 ft. from each other. Practice pitching green cups are installed in a ‘touchless’ manner. Foam or another material may be inserted. At no time is the entire ball resting below the putting surface.” [Note: Apologies for the use of “pins” instead of flagsticks; the protocol wasn’t written by a USGA Committeeman.]
  • Double occupancy golf cars are now permitted, restricted only by the following language: “Golf carts can have individuals from different households provided that all riders wear a face mask at all times. Otherwise, golf carts must be single rider only or used by members of the same household only.”
  • Water Fountains – the blanket prohibition on their availability has been replaced by the following language: “Encourage participants to bring their own pre-filled reusable or purchased water bottles. Water fountains are available to fill water bottles only. Participants should not drink from the same beverage container or share beverages.”

Those elements of the previous order that remain in place include the minimum 10-minute tee interval, groups of no more than 4, and the proscriptions against common touch points – e.g., flagsticks, bunker rakes, and standard hole. Also in the order is a requirement to follow the state standard regarding face coverings when unable to guarantee 6 feet of distance from another person and to follow some specific additional requirements in certain otherwise open-air situations such as the one above regarding double occupancy golf cars.

With respect to tending/pulling flagsticks and raking bunkers, there’s always the Orange Tier to look forward to in Los Angeles County. Other counties have reintroduced them in their respective Red Tiers, but to the degree to which patience is among the standard virtues, let’s practice standard virtue, count today’s blessings, and move on.

Given just how packed Los Angeles County’s municipal golf courses in particular are at the moment, it is going to be a challenge to accommodate high school teams and local golf clubs. But given the municipal golf sector’s longstanding mission to serve youth in general and schools in specific, we’re confident that mission will meet moment and schools will be able to conduct their competitive schedules this spring. The same goes for the 1-year interruption in local golf club activity; facilities and clubs will find a way to get back to some semblance of normality in short order.

Again, click here to read and/or download the updated Los Angeles County “Golf Appendix.” The updated “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order that is incorporated by reference therein is linked to the updated “Appendix.”

As frustrating as our experience with Los Angeles County DPH has been, we would be remiss if we did not point out that Los Angeles County Supervisors Janice Hahn (4th District) and Kathryn Barger (5th District) as well as Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation have been strong supporters of golf’s cause throughout the pandemic. We thank them for their support and understanding.