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# Look past the fairway
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/brec-city-brooks-park-golf-baton-rouge-sasaki-master-plan/
- Published: 2026-09-15T02:32:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T02:32:16.000Z
- Description: The golf debate has swallowed City-Brooks Park for months. On Thursday, perhaps the public's attention can focus on everything else.
- Author: JR Ball
- Tags: City Park

As if there hasn't been enough arguing about the future of the [City-Brooks Community Park](https://www.brec.org/lakesvision?ref=redeyebr.com), the public gets one more chance to air their views before the BREC Commission reviews a final draft.

BREC will hold the meeting in the Milton J. Womack Ballroom at its Florida Boulevard headquarters this Thursday (Sept. 17) from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

So much of the City-Brooks debate has been avalanched by arguments over the future of the 9-hole golf course and whether Baton Rouge can live in a world where a single yard is trimmed from the course. Yet the park offers so much more—in both acreage and conceivability—and what Sasaki proposes for the rest of this 154-acre vista deserves attention.

**Why it matters:** City-Brooks Park is stunning in both topography and geography and a strong quality-of-life and economic development asset on its own. Yet it also fits into a larger picture of possibility unfolding around it. That's worthy of an [Olmsted-inspired](https://www.redeyebr.com/what-would-olmsted-do/) conversation beyond a golf course and whether trimming 230 yards from the course is too big an ask.

**Off the fairway:** Sasaki's plan for the acreage beyond the 9 holes has been mostly settled [since March](https://www.redeyebr.com/city-park-brec-sasaki-loses-bold-master-plan-dixon-mcmakin/), and it's not thin, though some details could change in Thursday's presentation.

- A pool renovation, rec center, 400-meter track and courts anchor Phase 1—the earliest and best-funded piece of the plan.
- The existing and popular Knock-Knock Children's Museum remains an anchor amenity.
- A braided bayou, kayak rentals and a lakefront zone connecting the park to University Lakes have held since December's kickoff—one of the few genuinely bold ideas still standing.
- A $20 million Baton Rouge Gallery renovation—in the works before Sasaki arrived—sits in the heart of the park and gets a nod in the plan, not a line item.
- A raised crosswalk and wider multi-use paths across Dalrymple Drive are already in Phase 1, with a pedestrian bridge planned as part of the broader corridor connecting the park to the lakefront.

**Bigger than one park:** City-Brooks doesn't sit in isolation. It sits east of LSU's campus and Nicholson, southeast of downtown—inside the same loop of projects reshaping Baton Rouge's identity and its bottom line.

- University Lakes' $79 million restoration is on track to finish dredging by year's end—but the money to build out the rest of the ambitious renderings released at the project's launch was never secured. It's a funding gap fueling the push for a conservancy to take over for University Lakes LLC, an affiliate of the LSU Foundation.
- The proposed LSU Arena, entertainment district and technology initiative are advancing on LSU's campus, as are plans to bring fresh life to the Nicholson corridor, the tree-lined link between campus and downtown.
- Downtown, the Raising Cane's River Center is headed for a renovation, with a Sports Illustrated resort replacing the Hilton and at least one new hotel in the mix.

**Expert opinion:** [Butch Spyridon](https://www.redeyebr.com/redeye-interview-butch-spyridon/), the consultant leading Baton Rouge's push to redevelop the River Center, argues the city's fastest path to new revenue runs through sports and tourism: "Visitor dollars are the easier dollars, without huge investment and without raising taxes."

**The bottom line:** The public debate comes to a close on Thursday, but the potential for generational change is just beginning.

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