When a golf course closes, the fairways don't disappear. They wait for someone to decide what comes next.
In Palm Springs, that question now has an address. The former Bel Air Greens Golf Course
, 35.13 acres, is moving through a proposed residential conversion. The General Plan designates the land "Open Space – Parks and Recreation." The conceptual plan calls for 74 single-family lots, 11 open-space lots, and about 5.5 acres reserved for a Desert Greenway.There is a real case for the project. Housing matters, and a closed course that sits unused serves no one. Redevelopment could bring new homes, new neighbors, and a maintained landscape where neglect might otherwise set in. A greenway, if it is well designed and actually built, could give residents
a publicly accessible place to walk and spend time outdoors.
But this isn't simple math. An open-space designation exists for a reason, and changing it is a decision about what a neighborhood keeps and what it gives up. Residents deserve plain answers about how the greenway would be maintained, who pays for it, and how it connects to surrounding streets. The same goes for traffic, utilities, and the other infrastructure 74 new homes will rely on.
The economic picture deserves the same honesty. Golf in the Coachella Valley has never been only recreation. A Tourism Economics study found the region's golf industry generated nearly $1.1 billion in economic activity in 2014, supported more than 14,000 jobs and produced about $83.3 million in state and local taxes. That data is more than a decade old, and today's numbers may look different. Still, it is a reminder that courses feed restaurants, hotels, shops, and paychecks well beyond the first tee. When a course becomes a subdivision, some of that activity may go with it. Homes bring their own economic value, but it is a different kind, and city leaders should weigh both on the record.
None of this argues for freezing every former course in place. Some sites will make better housing than golf, and some will make better parks than either. The point is to decide deliberately, site by site, rather than by default.
That is why Bel Air Greens matters beyond its property lines. Other courses in the valley will face similar pressures, and how Palm Springs handles this one will set expectations. If the city can show that housing, open space, infrastructure, and economic activity were all weighed openly, it will have a template worth repeating.
If it can't, residents will be left guessing about the next one.
Palm Springs has a chance to get this right. It should take the time to do it.
Sean Petersen is the founder ofGolf Trip Junkie and has spent years studying the intersection of golf, tourism, and destination economies, with a particular interest in the environmental, economic, and community role of golf courses.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Bel Air Greens is a test case Palm Springs shouldn't rush | Opinion
