Every Town-owned and provided recreational asset should be evaluated based on its benefits to the Town's residents and stakeholders. Value measurements should be qualitative and quantitative.
Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
Does the asset serve constituent needs sufficient to justify investment and expense?
Does the asset represent the highest and best use of resources both in the present and into the foreseeable future for the community?
Does the asset serve sufficiently diverse segments of the community?
Over the long term, are the maintenance and operations of the asset financially and environmentally sustainable?
Does the asset contribute sufficiently to residents' quality of life and the community's economic vitality?
By maintaining a quality consistent with Town standards and user expectations, do the benefits justify the required investment and expense?
Pusch Ridge Golf is an Oro Valley Town asset scrutinized by many within the Town. During the pandemic, a decision was made to close the facility with little input from Town residents. At the time, the perception was that it was a little-used recreational facility that cost more to operate and maintain than could be justified.
The Oro Valley Town Council agreed to reopen the facility for a period of three years at the urging of a committed group of residents to determine whether it could be revised to justify its costs to the Town.
During the three-year probation period, Pusch Ridge Golf needed to justify its continued operations by demonstrating that it could attract sufficient users and reduce its net operations costs. Over the three seasons it has been open, Pusch Ridge Golf has more than quadrupled its past numbers of golf rounds played and required no Community Center Tax subsidy for day-to-day operations. During this time, the facility also demonstrated value to local businesses. Based on these results, the Oro Valley Town Council voted in February of 2024 to keep the facility open indefinitely.
To ensure its long-term viability, Pusch Ridge Golf must demonstrate its value beyond its ability to serve many users and break even financially. It needs to focus on improving its environmental sustainability, broadening the diversity of its user audience, and expanding its contribution to the greater economy of Oro Valley.
To accomplish this, Friends of Pusch Ridge Golf will continue to work with the Town of Oro Valley and Indigo Golf management with three strategies:
Marketing—Continue to support the golf course's marketing efforts to expand play and increase profitability. This will include continued marketing to area resorts and hotels, supporting continued healthy league and member play, increasing consideration and play from underrepresented market segments, and supporting local business and tourism in Oro Valley.
Water Use Mitigation – Given the impracticality of bringing reclaimed water to Pusch Ridge Golf and the limits to reducing water use on the course, focus on water-saving offsets by users bordering the facility and explore partnership opportunities to harvest stormwater to offset potable water use on the course and by close by users.
Accessibility to Golf—We believe Pusch Ridge Golf is the ideal facility to introduce golf to youth and accommodate use by those who may be mobility-challenged. The plan is to support families, the Junior PGA, and other youth groups. We will also pursue establishing a program to serve the mobility challenge by purchasing and providing specialty vehicles to accommodate people with disabilities who wish to participate in the game of golf.
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