Many trees were felled as part of the restoration and renovation of the Cobbs Creek golf course and community engagement center, as seen on February 27, 2022. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
Revelations that the foundation leasing the city-owned Cobbs Creek Golf Course in West Philadelphia cut hundreds of trees for the course renovation and made what appears to be an improper campaign contribution have raised questions about the city’s deal with the group.
Course size varies, but consider a course with 130 irrigated acres and you have a total water need around 21 million gallons. If the year has more beneficial rain events, the irrigation water use declines drastically.
Here are the highlights: The West Conshohocken-based Cobbs Creek Foundation, headed by Chris Maguire, Chris Lange, and Jeff Shanahan, is paying the city just $1 for what could be a 70-year lease. The property has an assessed value of over $90 million, according to the city’s property records website.
The West Conshohocken-based Cobbs Creek Foundation, headed by Chris Maguire, Chris Lange, and Jeff Shanahan, is paying the city just $1 for what could be a 70-year lease.
An 18-hole “championship course capable of hosting PGA Tour events” and designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner is expected to open by 2024.
Cobbs Creek is an 11.8-mile-long (19.0 km) tributary of Darby Creek in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It forms an approximate border between Montgomery County and Delaware County.
Cobbs Creek will close to the public Oct. 31, when the city's contract with its managing company, Billy Casper Golf, ends. The renovations will start this spring, and the course is expected to reopen in June 2023, a representative from Philadelphia Parks and Recreation said.
The course was closed in 2020 due to insufficient funds to address structural and safety concerns. A fire in 2016 destroyed the clubhouse. But years of flooding from Cobbs Creek, followed by erosion, washed away sections of the greens and fairways and made the course unplayable.
The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America.
Its close to down town and the airport. " "It's a good and great neighborhood for you to raise your kids if you are gonna to raise a family there. "
the JamesHenrico gets its public water from the James. Some rural homes and businesses in Henrico use groundwater as their source. Henrico buys some water from Richmond and sells some to Goochland and Hanover counties. Cobbs Creek will make an additional 17 million gallons of water available for regional consumption.
Cobbs Creek Trail is a 4.2 mile asphalt trail running along Cobbs Creek in West and Southwest Philadelphia. The northern trailhead is at 63rd and Market streets and the southern trailhead is at Island and Woodland Avenues.
Cumberland County, VirginiaThe Cobbs Creek Reservoir is a 14.8 billion-gallon regional water supply impoundment located in Cumberland County, Virginia that will augment the flow of the James River as needed.
Darby Creek is located within southeastern Pennsylvania and flows into the Delaware River, south of the Schuylkill River and the City of Philadelphia (Figure 1-1).
23035Cobbs Creek / Zip code
Water is one of the biggest costs to golf courses, and this is another reason why many have tried to save as much water as possible. Depending on the location of the golf course and the climate, an 18-hole course can use on average 2.08 billion gallons of water per day. Depending on the amount of water needed, a typical golf course can spend between $7,000 and $108,000 per year.
One of the ways that golf courses can save water is to reduce the need for it in the first place. In the past, courses used Bermuda grasses as these were fast-growing and tough. However, research has been going on into alternatives that not only need less water but can also handle more salt. Poor quality water often has a higher salt content, which can be bad for the grasses. By increasing their tolerance, water from more sources can be used.
As well as trying to reduce pollution, rising temperatures have seen more demand on water supplies that has to be managed to ensure there is always fresh water available. Over the past few years, more countries have had to impose water restrictions and spend more money on their infrastructure to ensure no water is lost.
Many courses will have a lot of open grass areas that are not strictly part of the course. This grass also needs irrigation, but that increases the demand for water. To counteract this, some courses have removed the areas of grass that are not needed and replaced it with cacti can desert-loving plants. These need little irrigation, and they are also a good contrast to the green fairways and greens.
Along with this, they will often have other facilities such as clubhouses, conference facilities, and other areas that may also need to use water. The restrictions placed on golf courses has meant that they have had to implement strategies to monitor and save water where possible.
From FDR Park to Graffiti Pier, and the Floating Water Workshop to Cobbs Creek Golf Course, an update on big projects in the works.
Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter to get everything you need to know about Philadelphia, every day.
The Fund for the Water Works received a $3 million grant from the state last year to construct a “Floating Water Workshop” on the Schuylkill — a 5,400-sq.-ft. learning space with exhibits where visitors can learn about water science.
Building off of the 2013 “More Park, Less Way” Parks & Rec action plan, the city is planning an overhaul of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway between Logan Circle and the Philadelphia Art Museum to make it more of a pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented public space.
A $250 million “master plan” to redesign South Philly’s 348-acre FDR Park is underway. The plan aims in part to reduce flooding in the park and provide more access points to “the Lakes” and wildlife, while incorporating climate change considerations into its design.
With a $82,500 grant from the William Penn Foundation, the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission last year started planning a public space next to its Callhowhill location, which provides beds and food to people in need.
A plan to restore the historic, century-old Cobbs Creek Golf Course is finally underway, following a 30-year lease agreement between the city and the nonprofit Cobbs Creek Foundation.