Yale Curbs Neighbors’ Golf Course Access

Fifty Upper Westville neighbors gathered in a green minipark on a cool summer night and turned their thoughts to winter — and to Yale’s decision to end, for now, their generations-long access to sledding, cross-country skiing, and day-time hiking at the university’s golf course.

The neighbors gathered Thursday evening at the Upper Westville Community Park to discuss that sudden change in policy and enforcement at the privately-owned but long-publicly accessible 18-hole golf course located behind Stevenson Road and Conrad Drive.

The meeting was organized by Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr. and Knollwood Drive resident and community park chair Amy Marx.

They sat in a circle in the landscaped, wooded park at the corner of Conrad Drive and Ray Road — a space which is also legally owned by Yale but has been cared for in collaboration with Upper Westville neighbors for years.

They lamented that the de facto closing of public access to the golf course year-round would mean the loss of a calming daily walking ritual for current residents. They mourned the apparent end to a winter-excursion rite of passage for generations of neighborhood children to come. And they shared story after story of time spent with their families, their dogs, their neighbors, and by themselves walking and hiking and sledding through the golf course.

“It’s very freeing to be able to walk there. It’s like an oasis,” said Jennifer Botwick.

She recalled bringing her three sons sledding and cross-country skiing at the golf course countless times during her 31 years living in the neighborhood. She still walks through the nature and paved paths of the course on a regular basis.

“It’s such a gem. I don’t want to lose it.”

An 86-year-old New Haven native named Henry agreed. He said he’s spent the past 49 years walking on a near daily basis along the golf course’s many paved and wooded paths — during the golfing season as well as during the colder months, early in the morning and at night.

He remembered walking through the course during ​“grape season” and being invited to drink homemade wine with golf course maintenance workers at the site’s clubhouse.

“I have never been challenged [by Yale Golf Course staff] until recently,” he said. ​“I find it very offensive.”

Karen King, who works as a community affairs associate for Yale’s Office of New Haven Affairs, told the Independent by email on Friday morning that ​“the university is allowing pedestrian access on the cart paths only when the gates are closed as a safety precaution.”

“We have previously communicated to neighborhood representatives that the university is developing a plan to map public walking trails in the area,” King wrote. She said the university is also ​“working to identify a designated area for community use in the winter.”

New Rules; ​“Frustrating, To Say The Least”

Brackeen and Marx took the lead on Thursday in explaining what the new rules are for community members accessing the course. They also encouraged neighbors to work together to come up with compromise counter-proposals to present to the university so that Upper Westville neighbors can continue to enjoy the space relatively unencumbered.

“For a long time, there was a pretty decent relationship” between the university and the Upper Westville community about both the golf course and the Upper Westville Community Park, Brackeen said. ​“Until recently.”

Marx said that she became privy to an apparent change in policy at the golf course last winter. She and her kids were ​“happily sledding one day” when they were confronted by the golf course’s manager and asked to leave. She and her husband also attempted to cross-country ski at the course this past winter, and were again asked to leave.

On another occasion, her family tried to walk through the course to get to the Yale Nature Preserve, a route they’ve trod many times during their two decades in the neighborhood. Again, they were asked to leave.

“My family has personally been kicked off [the course] on three occasions.” She said she and Brackeen have heard similar complaints from roughly a dozen neighbor in recent weeks and months.

“It’s frustrating, to say the least,” Marx said. ​“We were told the golf course is not open to us.”

After meeting with golf course and Yale Athletics management to talk about this newfound problem, Marx and Brackeen said, they learned that the course has established the following rules for when and how community members can access the space:

• No walking is allowed on the paved areas during golf season (March to November) except when the front gate is closed. All walking is prohibited when the gates open at 5 a.m. through around 7:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays.

• Even though the course is closed to golfing on Mondays, there is no walking allowed on that off-day when the gates are open, as maintenance is working on the site. That means no walking between 5 a.m. and around 3:30 p.m. on Mondays.

• No sledding and cross-country skiing at all in the winter.

Marx and Brackeen said that they have also requested — so far, in vain — a discounted golf course usage fee for Upper Westville community members that would be similar to that offered to Yale students, faculty and alumni. They’ve also protested the golf course’s use of signs that state that the course is open to ​“paid golfers” only.

Marx said that university officials explained that they are concerned about community members getting hit by errant golf balls if they persist in walking through the course while players are golfing.

She said the manager also raised concerns about community members walking their dogs off leash and leaving waste behind on the course.

And she said Yale does not want sledding and cross-country skiing to take place during the winter because those activities can damage the golf course’s grass.

“We acknowledge that it’s private property,” Marx said about the golf course. ​“But we feel strongly that it’s a community resource.”

“Yale Is Us, & We Are Yale”

For the next roughly hour and a half, the group went in a circle, with neighbor after neighbor speaking about their history with the course and their thoughts on the new rules.

Some, like Ellen Abraman, had no problems with the limited access guidelines and Yale’s apparent rationale for cracking down.

“In my 42 years up here. We have never had a problem,” she said.

In defense of prohibiting children from playing at the course during the winter, Abraman said, ​“People were skiing or sledding over the greens, and it damaged the greens.”

And when Covid hit, she said, more and more people from outside of the neighborhood ​“discovered” the course and started visiting and walking all over the site, sometimes with dogs off leash, sometimes without cleaning up after themselves.

“At this point, it’s about clarity and collaboration,” she said. ​“The clarity of rules and the clarity of communication is what’s important.”

Some who spoke up were incredulous about the new restrictions.

“What kind of damage can walking cause to the land?” one woman asked. ​“I understand no free dogs, but just to walk?”

Others suggested that the community agree to a detailed set of rules regarding what they can and cannot do when walking along the course. For example: Keep your dog on a leash. No walking when people are golfing. Make sure to stay on the paved and nature trails, and stay off of the greens. Only sledding and skiing in areas designated by the university.

“There have been generations of joyful children” coming to this course to sled, another woman said. The community should protect that opportunity for future generations.

Upper Westville neighbor Matt Smith suggested that the university and community work to put up doggy poop bags at the entrance to the course to emphasize that community members are responsible for cleaning up after their pets.

“I think that could be a really good first step forward,” he said.

Still another neighbor inexplicably criticized the golf course manager for having a ​“different value system” from that of long-time Upper Westville residents because, she said, ​“he’s from Wisconsin.”

At the end of the meeting, the majority of those who attended agreed to the following terms, which they asked Marx and Brackeen to bring back to the university to strike a sort of compromise. Those included:

• Allowing community members to walk on the course’s paths between 5 a.m. when the gates open and 7:30 a.m. when golfing starts, as well as at night after the course closes at 7:30 p.m. They also asked to be able to walk on the course’s paths on Monday during the day, as the course is closed to golfers that day of the week.

• No walking through the course while people are golfing.

• Allowing members of the public to access the course’s clubhouse.

• Opening the course to community members for daytime walking during the golfing off-season between November and March.

• Designating a hill for wintertime sledding, and a specific area for cross-country skiing.

• Requiring community members to sign a piece of paper or otherwise explicitly agree to terms of use for the course, such as keeping dogs on leashes, cleaning up after dogs, and not leaving trash.

“This is really important for the mental health and the spiritual health” of the community, Botwick said about maintaining some kind of community access to the course.

Marx agreed. She said that her and her family’s experiences on the golf course over the years come up all the time when she talks about what she loves about living in Upper Westville.

And, while the course is legally owned by Yale, the deep and complicated and inextricable relationship between the university and New Haven makes this golf course different from some private country club.

Many of the neighbors at Thursday’s meeting spoke up about working at Yale, or being the child or spouse of someone who works at Yale, or having graduated from Yale.

“Yale is us, and we are Yale in New Haven,” Marx said.