How many houses could be built on golf course?

Thanks for publishing the letter on Tuesday, August 27 about the Boulder Airport, where the author also mentioned the Flatirons Golf Course. My house backs onto 55th Street just across from that golf course. So I went across the street and looked through the chain-linked fence that keeps those of us in the neighborhood from entering that expanse of open space and walking on the carefully manicured greens. There were seven golfers on the 55th Street side of the course, and others in the distance.

So I got in my car and drove down Arapahoe along that other chain-linked fence and into the main entrance. There was one person at the driving range and others in view on the greens and near the new clubhouse. I counted seventy-seven cars in the parking lot where I also counted two-hundred and thirty parking spaces. There were a hundred or more acres of water-sucking grass; and, being aware of de-turfing programs at some western gold courses because of drought conditions and water shortages, I wondered how much longer this place could last.

Sweeping my view around the expanse that surrounded me, I wondered how many affordable houses could be built on part or all of what I saw; and, of how few businesses and people would be adversely effected compared to closing the Boulder airport. But in the spirit of full disclosure, perhaps my view of the matter is colored by the fact that I am not a golfer, and that I am a commercial pilot.

— Don Bryan, Boulder