Agency Looks To End Lease At Sligo Creek Golf Course

Revenue Authority Also In Talks to Run RedGate

The Montgomery County Revenue Authority plans to ask the county's Park and Planning agency to allow it to back out of a lease deal at Sligo Creek Golf Course, saying that unless it can build a driving range at the site, the finances won't work.

The revenue authority has also entered into talks with the city of Rockville about possibly taking over operations at its RedGate Golf Course.

The moves have sparked concern among golfers and some local officials, who are questioning whether employees are being well treated, whether the deals would be good policy and what the government's role should be in supporting public recreation. Complaints have been made about excessive secrecy in the deals, although officials involved in the discussions say those are unfair.

The latest turn in the story of how Montgomery is managing its 10 county golf courses has it roots in discussions three years ago, when the Park and Planning Department began a closed-door process that led to a decision to lease its four courses to the revenue authority. The park-system golf courses were bleeding money, parks officials said at the time, without offering details.

The revenue authority, a quasi-public agency that pays its way without county funds, could run the courses more efficiently, parks officials said. Revenue authority and parks officials said they thought the agency could achieve more efficiency by merging the four courses with the revenue authority's operation of five others.

But at Sligo, a nine-hole course just inside the Capital Beltway, the revenue authority bumped into community resistance to its proposal to open a driving range with lights for night operation. Without the lights, the revenue authority said, the course could not generate enough revenue to pay for itself.

The 50-year-old course, beloved by its clientele, won the National Golf Foundation's award in 2007 for most-improved customer loyalty.

Mary Bradford, who heads the county's park system, which would have to take back operations at Sligo, said many options are possible, including continuing to run it as a golf course. She acknowledged that a no-compete clause in the lease with the revenue authority could preclude that, but she said she is waiting for clarification from the parks agencies' attorneys.

"There absolutely has been no decision on future use," she said. "We are still looking at it." The Planning Board is scheduled to discuss the course's future Feb. 26.

Revenue authority Executive Director Keith Miller said the three other park-system golf courses that the revenue authority has leased -- Little Bennett, Needwood and Northwest -- have done well financially and are not likely to be returned to the park system.

Byrne Peake, a Sligo golfer and president of the Woodmoor-Pinecrest Civic Association near the golf course, said he and others on a task force convened by Miller had come up with other options they said could help generate revenue at Sligo. But Miller said their plans wouldn't work.

About the same time the revenue authority decided to give up on Sligo, Rockville officials decided they wanted out of the golf business. Several weeks ago, city officials quietly asked the revenue authority to look at taking over operations of its RedGate course, which Mayor Susan Hoffmann said loses about $250,000 a year.