Neighbors for Green Space hosted an ice cream social at the North Golf Course to thank elected officials for supporting efforts to preserve the course.
About 50 people attended the event, which honored seven officials, including Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, City Councilors Isaac Benton and Rey Garduno, County Commissioner Deanna Archuleta and State Sen. Cisco McSorley.
Reps. Gail Chasey and Danice Picraux were honored with a medal and certificate that read "defender of the North Golf Course greenspace" on Sunday.
Picraux said she and Chasey had collaborated on a written appeal last year in defense of the course.
"They're saying this resource could be put to more beneficial use by taking away its very nature," Picraux said. "The community is saying, 'No, you can do what you need to do in other ways as a university and leave this alone as a community resource.'"
In February 2007, the University proposed building a retirement community on the course. The announcement was met with protest from members of the community.
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In response to the outcry, President David Schmidly formed an advisory board in November to recommend a compromise.
Sara Koplik, president of the advisory board, said the issue hasn't been resolved.
"President Schmidly said he was ready to create a document to permanently preserve part of the golf course in perpetuity in return for some development area," Koplik said. "He asked for about 30 acres, and we put in our recommendation: 27 acres. And it turns out that that's not enough."
She said she hopes the advisory board and the regents can come to a compromise at the board's April 30 meeting.
Schmidly said there are currently no plans to develop the golf course.
"We're getting ready to start our master plan soon," he said. "We're not going to use it for commercial development. We're going to use it for what the University needs, not for what the residents around that North Golf Course need."
Chasey said the golf course should be preserved because it is ecologically important.
"Throughout the city, people have a commitment to this, because it provides oxygen to a very pollution-filled area, which is the Big I," Chasey said.
McSorley said he submitted a proposal that would give $200,000 to UNM's Sustainability Studies program to use the golf course as a "living laboratory," but the proposal was vetoed by the governor.
"I don't think I deserve this this year quite yet," he said. "Next year, maybe we'll get a different result."
Koplik said she will fight for the golf course even if the regents meeting doesn't go well.
"I think it's a wise strategy to continue to engage with each other on the issue, because that decreases tension, and it can lead to a more healthy relationship," Koplik said. "The relationship between the University and the community has been strained, and I wish it weren't that way."
