I saw this wonderful news today. A golf course near London is being converted into a public park.
This benefits everyone. I was inspired by this wonderful land use improvement and decided to do some calculations on a local golf course.
Here is a Google Earth measurement of Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach, CA. 397 acres of ocean view residential land. Wasted on golf.
1/
This golf course has a 2023-24 property tax bill of $1,120,766 and is seriously under-taxed.
Local taxpayers are effectively subsidizing this golf course with at least $61M to $73M/PER YEAR in lost tax property revenues.
THESE FUNDS COULD BE USED TO BUILD LOW-COST HOUSING!
2/
I sampled an area of the neighborhood South the golf course (Crystal Cove) to establish local market housing density.
2.01 houses per acre (174 houses in a sampled area of 83 acres).
These are big 3,500-5,000 SF McMansions with pools, high-end fixtures, etc. Average prices are around $7M
3/
At this density, they could build 832 new McMansions on the golf course land.
The current local property tax rate is 1.0763%. At an average house price of $7M.
This would generate $62,683,712 in annual property tax revenue.
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The neighborhood to the North (Cameo Highlands) has a density of 3.44 houses per acre (141 in an area of 41 acres).
Most of these are 2,000-4,000 SF. Older neighborhood. Average prices are around $5M
5/
At this density, they could build 1,365 new McMansions.
This would generate $73,473,225.73 in annual property tax revenue. Probably even more since newer construction sells for higher prices.
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If we were to replace this golf course with 832 or 1,365 new McMansions, there would be a lot of rich people who would not be gentrifying other neighborhoods
This would help increase the housing supply for everyone
And all the additional property tax revenue could be used to build more housing
7/
This is just ONE golf course. There are at least 16 more golf courses less than 10 miles from this location
So much housing could be built on this wasted land. Even fancy expensive houses will get lots of tax revenue that can be invested in...
LOW COST HOUSING in less golf-infested areas!
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Here is a Google Earth screenshot showing the whole golf course and both neighborhoods mentioned above.
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It is so outrageous that golf courses don't pay their fair share. They should be taxed at the value of the highest and best use of the land.
Or ideally replaced with houses and parks. The new tax revenue can be spent building low cost housing for everyone.
/10
Less than 1.5 miles away, unhoused people sleep in tents at the bus station. Newport Beach put up fences to exclude them from every other place.
I think there is some technicality with the ownership of the bus station that prevents them from removing people from the station itself.
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They do everything possible to harass these people. Meanwhile we are all forced to subsidize this golf course.
They could even build high-rise condos on the golf course land. Way more units, way more tax revenue, way more money to build low cost housing.
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And I've only detailed expensive rich-person uses for this land.
What is we built mixed-use high density housing here that included low-cost units?
It would be possible, and it would pay for itself in tax revenues.
All those unhoused people at the bus stop could live there. The fence company could have their fence back.
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And I just did the figures for ONE golf course. There are so many more.
We could solve so many housing problems if we taxed golf courses properly, and spent the money BUILDING MORE HOUSING!
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Here are all the parcels numbers (APNs) that comprise the golf course, and the total 2023-24 tax bills for each parcel.
You can lookup each APN and download the tax bills here. It is public information. Owner names are redacted by law.
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The APNs can be looked up here.
https://nbgis.newportbeachca.gov/NewportHTML5Viewer/?viewer=publicsite
orac