Shortly after the proposal became known this spring, hikers, bird watchers and environmentalists launched an impassioned campaign to preserve the Greenbury Point Conservation Area overlooking the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay. The green patch of land is visible from the city, and its three radio towers, remnants of an array that once communicated with Navy submarines below the Atlantic Ocean, have become landmarks for sailors cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Opponents fear an additional 18-hole golf course on the peninsula will destroy important wetlands and forest habitats, pollute the bay and cut off public access to the shoreline. They also worry that the proposal is further along than the Navy will admit and that well-connected Navy veterans and wealthy graduates will have a great influence in determining if it is built.
“There are a lot of people here who love and use this place: old people, children who are pulled in little cars. . . people walking dogs, people training for marathons. . . people fishing,” said Joel Dunn, president and CEO of the Chesapeake Conservancy. “This is a very special resource for the community and we are very grateful to the Navy for allowing us to use it, visit it and enjoy it. So the threat of taking it away with a private golf course is really unnerving for everyone here.”
Twenty-five environmental organizations, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Severn Riverkeeper and the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, wrote a letter in May. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, urging him to kill the plan. A poll commissioned by the Severn River Association and the Chesapeake Conservancy found that more than two-thirds opposed the idea.
A Facebook page called Save Greenbury Point has attracted about 2,000 members, and about 4,700 people have signed a Change.org petition. Letters have been sent to members of the Maryland congressional delegation asking them to intervene.
Although several opponents said they have long respected the Navy’s efforts to balance its mission with protecting the bay, they criticized the proposal and what they said has been a lack of transparency.
“This is a typical developer MO,” said Jesse Iliff, executive director of the Severn River Association. “Hide the ball until you’re in the end zone and then hit it.”
Gladchuk, while not surprised by the outcry, characterized the response as alarmist and wildly premature to what he describes as the equivalent of a test balloon.
“There are no bulldozers, there is no plan, there is no architectural design, there is no architect,” Gladchuk said in an interview. “We looked at Greenbury Point and said, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be interesting to study the feasibility of creating a great recreation facility on the point?’ ”
In his Feb. 15 letter, Gladchuk, who is president of the Naval Academy Golf Association (NAGA) and the academy’s athletic director, urged del Toro to back the project. He said a second golf course, to be developed by NAGA on property to be leased from the Marina, would fit in well with the newly renovated and redesigned golf course. The reform, which began in 2020 and it will cost $10 million, it also includes plans for a new clubhouse with a dining room.
“I ask for your support,” Gladchuk says in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “I look forward to visiting with you to show you our conceptual plans for the course.”
But there has been no meeting and, so far, not even a map of a new golf course, Gladchuk said. In his imagination, however, about 280 acres of the Greenbury Point Conservation Area and adjoining land would be converted into an 18-hole golf course nestled among nature trails, a boat launch, bird-watching shutters, fitness sites, and more. features. Areas with soil contaminated by previous Navy activity would be cleaned up and levees raised in anticipation of higher sea levels due to climate change.
“It’s overgrown,” Gladchuk said of the area now. It is infested with ticks. The walking trails are full of invasive species. It’s just undeveloped land.”
Hundreds, if not thousands, of golfers use the existing privately funded course, including midshipmen in the varsity, intramural, and physical education programs; active military personnel from all branches, including civilian employees; and veterans and academy graduates, Gladchuk said. Members of the public can play for a fee or become members.
Even if the Navy were to give the go-ahead to proceed with a new course, he said, the process would require multiple levels of bureaucratic review, environmental and historical studies in accordance with federal law, as well as broad public comment. It would also have to take into account a decades-old binding agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and state governments located in the basin to restore the bay.
“It would take years to develop,” Gladchuk said.
He also estimates that NAGA would need to raise at least $35 million to make this happen.
In the meantime, his proposal moves up the chain of command, beginning with Naval Support Activity Annapolis, a facility that is part of the Naval District of Washington and serves the naval academy, Greenbury Point, and nearby Navy properties. Ed Zeigler, a spokesman for the Naval District of Washington, said nothing has changed since Gladchuk’s letter and referred further questions to the Navy. FAQ page.
Jennifer Crews-Carey, a retired Annapolis police officer who helped organize opposition to a new golf course, said opponents continue to press the Navy for more information on the status of the proposal.
“I doubt it’s on a napkin,” said Crews-Carey, 56, of Cape St. Claire.
Under the tax code, the Naval Academy Golf Association is a nonprofit social club created to promote and support golf and to operate the academy’s existing golf course.
NAGA had revenue of more than $2.5 million in 2018 from green fees, initiation fees, golf cart rentals and membership fees of more than $1.6 million, according to the most recent public financial statements. The financial statement estimates the value of the property at nearly $5.8 million.
There are 510 dues-paying members, split evenly between military and civilian, with another 118 on the waiting list, Gladchuk said. The initiation fee ($22,500 for a family membership) is greatly reduced for military retirees, who pay $5,500. Green fees are similarly discounted.
In addition to the golf course, the Marina property across the River Severn from the academy supports a number of other uses, including rugby pitches and a rifle and pistol shooting range. The Navy purchased much of the 827 acres in 1909 as farmland to support the academy’s dining hall.
Starting in 1918, Greenbury Point became a radio transmission and research site until satellite communications made it obsolete. Radio towers were dismantled and all but three were leveled.
Since 1999, Greenbury Point has been managed as a conservation area. During a recent tour, Dunn and a group of conservationists pointed out the rich diversity of wildlife there, though part of the conservation area was off limits while the range was in use.
Butterflies floated on milkweed stalks and an indigo pennant hung from the top of a tree at the edge of a rough field. Hundreds of creatures, including ospreys, deer, tree frogs, turtles and, yes, ticks, make their home on the site, whose nearby waters are home to oysters and other marine life.
The land has been inhabited by humans for 10,000 years and settled by Europeans since 1649, said Sue Steinbrook, an opposition organizer who is also researching the history of the area.
“It’s a rare, very rare resource for people to use,” said Dunn, who runs the Chesapeake Conservancy. “We all care about the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay, we want people to invest in its future, and we’re spending billions of dollars to restore it. But if you can’t see it and you can’t enjoy it, you’re not going to vote for it.”