Residents to council: Keep the Wortham golf course

Earlier this month, we talked about the proposal to build a youth sports complex on the site of the Wortham Park Golf Course, one of three public courses inside the Loop and an East End institution for a hundred years. The complex proposal is part of Houston's push to keep the Dynamo in town — the team is looking for a new stadium and has stipulated that a youth soccer/sports complex be part of the deal, and Houston is keen to keep the men in orange from moving to the suburbs.

We figured the idea of losing the Wortham course wouldn't sit well with local residents, and sure enough, it didn't: Some petition-toting Wortham supporters showed up at City Hall yesterday, telling City Councilmembers that they want the golf course to stay. Their mood? "Panic, absolute panic," supporter Walter A. Boyd said. "Where am I going to play every Sunday? Why are they doing this? This is one of the most beautiful spots in the East End." They're not the only people who aren't crazy about the idea: Councilwoman Carol Alvarado and council candidate James Rodriguez also oppose tearing down the golf course, a move Rodriguez called "an egregious example of government bureaucracy attempting to dictate public policy without the benefit of community input." On the other side of the issue are Dynamo President and General Manager Oliver Luck, South Texas Soccer Association President Ed Loucks and Texas State Soccer Association-South President Pascal Piazza, who sent around a letter urging people to contact Mayor Bill White, Alvarado and their city councilmembers in support of putting the sports complex on the Wortham site.

White said yesterday that he's "not going to support something over the strong objection of the councilmember from that district, period," referring to Alvarado's opposition to the Wortham plan. However, he said it'll be tough to find a location for the sports complex: The city will likely want to go with land it already owns, and some other potential sites might need environmental remediation. Officials say the location of the complex is still very much up in the air, but Andy Icken of the city's Public Works and Engineering Department has said the city hopes to present a proposal to the Dynamo in early March — so we assume a plan will fall into place one way or the other pretty soon.