Rumors rumble among golfers, but city says it's not 'putting' Riverside on the market

Fresno's golfing community is rumbling over rumors that the city may sell the venerable Riverside Golf Course. But city officials said that while a would-be developer approached City Hall in late 2017 with ideas for developing the golf course for a residential subdivision uses, selling the course was not seriously considered.

The 18-hole municipal course occupies about 120 acres on the south bank of the San Joaquin River. It's bounded on the south by an established subdivision, and newer homes have sprung up in recent years to the west.

"Riverside Golf Course was identified in the strategic study of city assets done by our broker a few years go as a potential source of revenue," city spokesman Mark Standriff said Thursday. "But there has been little discussion of a private sale since then."

"We had one individual who showed interest last year but the offer wasn't seriously entertained," Standriff added. "The city has no current plans to sell the golf course."

Riverside, also known by the nickname "Big Muni," is the westernmost of four golf courses perched along the river in northwest Fresno. Upstream, both the Bluff Pointe Golf Course and Fig Garden Golf Club are available to the public, while the San Joaquin Country Club is private for members only.

"Some folks came to the city to talk to us about buying Riverside Golf Course and possibly developing it," said City Councilman Steve Brandau, whose district includes the course. "The city listed to them and heard their proposals … but the proposals laid out by the interested parties didn't quite match what the mayor and city manager were looking for."

"The reality is that it looks like we'll continue serving the public with a public golf course," Brandau added. "It's not in escrow, and there's no proposal on the table that's being seriously discussed."

A history of municipal golf in Fresno by longtime golfer Bill Finn, who helps write The Bee's "Fore You" golf column, and the late former Fresno Bee sports writer Bruce Farris, traces Riverside's origins to 1925, when three members of the Sunnyside Country Club built the semi-private nine-hole Riverside Golf Club along the San Joaquin River.

In 1938, the city of Fresno bought the course, clubhouse and 40 additional acres for less than $12,000, even though the city limits at that time were well south of the property. The city undertook the expansion of the course to 18 holes with the help of golf course architect Billy Bell, and construction labor was provided at no cost to the city by the Works Progress Administration, a public employment program under President Franklin Roosevelt. The expanded course opened in 1939 as the Fresno Municipal Golf Course. The Riverside name returned to the course in 1963.

Over the past decade, the city and course management company CourseCo Inc. have worked to make improvements in the property. The city issued $2.3 million in bonds, to be repaid by April 2038 from the rent it receives the course operators, to finance work including a new irrigation system for the course.

While city leaders say there is no sale on the horizon, nor any plans to sell the course, any deal would likely face a vigorous outcry from generations of golfers who have hacked, chipped and putted their way across Riverside's fairways and greens over the decades. Such a deal would require Fresno City Council approval, as would changes to what the land can be used for. The property is designated in the city' General Plan as open space for a golf course; it would take an amendment to the general plan for it to be used for a housing subdivision or any other purpose.

"Have we listened to offers, listened to ideas? Yes, because that's part of our job," Brandau said Thursday. "But our city manager looked at the numbers and didn't think it was a good match."

"I'm a big proponent of Riverside; it's where guys like me play golf," Brandau added. " It's $25 to golf there, not $80, and there are a lot of people who enjoy playing golf there."

This story was originally published March 29, 2018 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Rumors rumble among golfers, but city says it's not 'putting' Riverside on the market."