The UConn Golf program has operated on campus for decades, winning two Big East Championships (1994, 2021) and drawing talented student athletes who train and compete under the guidance of a coach who has been with the program for almost 20 years. The nine-member team and its three coaches currently practice in a simulator room inside Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on-campus, which is slated for renovation into a different programmed space for generating revenue. The team also relies on other practice facilities across the state, indoors, and outdoors, to meet its needs and schedules.  A dedicated university-managed practice facility would reduce travel costs, centralize activities and decrease travel time for student-athletes, while increasing levels of competition and recruitment.

The university proposes to develop a practice facility for the team on a portion of land it owns near the Storrs campus. The proposal is currently in review through scoping processes required under the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act (CEPA), and UConn expects to issue a Post-Scoping Notice in spring 2026 with proposed next steps, along with responses to questions and comments received during the CEPA Scoping Notice phase.

However, due to the significant amount of misinformation that continues to circulate about this potential project, we have established the following answers to the most frequently asked questions in advance of the Post-Scoping Notice:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is envisioned?

UConn owns 22 acres fronting Storrs Road (Route 195) and East Road, about 1.5 miles south of the Storrs campus. The conceptual site plan proposes use of a portion of the parcel that was previously developed as a plant research facility - approximately 7 acres - to develop a golf practice facility. Two-thirds of the property would remain preserved as vegetated habitat and woodland.

The proposed facility would consist of a building, a parking area, an unlit narrow driving range, and two putting greens. A 6,000 gross square-foot building (comparable to two tennis courts) would contain office space, lockers, restrooms and showers, equipment storage and repair space, a flex space / team room, and indoor putting and simulation areas. Its architectural character would be contextual to its surroundings; however, it would mostly be screened from view of neighboring properties.

It would not be a golf course. Golf courses require 50 to 200 acres of land for a nine- or eighteen-hole course; that has never been envisioned or planned for this site.

The facility would not be open to the public and therefore would not generate the vehicle traffic or other impacts associated with those uses. The parking area would accommodate less than 20 vehicles, and its security lighting will be dark-sky compliant.

The driving range would not be irrigated and is not intended to be maintained as a fairway typically found at a golf course. Irrigation would be confined to areas immediately surrounding the building, including the putting greens (estimated at 7,500 square feet), comparable in size to many residential lawns in the area.

Why now?

UConn’s team and coaches practice in a golf simulator room inside Gampel Pavilion, where a renovation project will soon make that space unavailable for this use. The team also practices at other facilities in the region. Centralizing the practice operations at a single site with dedicated indoor and outdoor amenities would support the program by replacing the lost space in Gampel, reducing travel time for student athletes, and increasing levels of competition and recruitment.

The need for a golf practice facility is well-established. While funding was not identified until late 2025 to substantiate a project, pre-planning activities for identifying potential study sites and completion of a land and tree survey occurred in 2023.

That effort included a meeting with nearby residents who were concerned about the survey work they viewed near their property lines, and they wanted to learn more about the possibility of development nearby.

UConn officials met to discuss next steps to develop a concept plan, including illustrations that would convey a vision for the property. The university committed to use only the developed portion of the site, which would require minimal clearing and earthwork.

The revised approach for conceiving a smaller facility without impacting woodland and with less disturbance overall was a direct result of listening to the neighborhood's concerns.

Further, UConn committed to notifying specific neighbors nearby when the University started an actual project, disseminating that information publicly. It also committed to conducting an Environmental Impact Evaluation, as appropriate, as part of the CEPA process. That notification occurred in December 2025 prior to publishing the Scoping Notice.

Why here and not somewhere else?

This parcel is unique in that is previously developed and unutilized, removing the need to demolish buildings, roadways, or infrastructure for the proposed use. Using this site would also preserve valuable agricultural and forestry resources on other UConn-owned properties.

For instance, one alternative site would have required removal of active agriculture for growing feed for UConn livestock. That would have forced the university to consider replicating that land elsewhere over time, purchase existing farmland to reproduce those crops, or to buy feed to replace what it could no longer grow on site.

Forested land and sites at UConn’s Depot campus were also considered, but posed environmental constraints or could not as easily accommodate the proposed practice facility's program and budget. In the end, the Storrs/East Road facility was the most feasible and appropriate location among the many sites that the university examined for conducting planning and design activities.

What work would occur there to build the facility?

The proposed action would involve site preparation activities such as selective tree clearing, earthwork sensitive to subsurface hydrology and bedrock, utility connections for power, septic, and potable water, and related work to support construction of the building, parking lot, driving range, and the practice greens. There will be no clear-cutting or bulldozing of forests, no installation of large or intrusive lighting, no public access that could generate traffic and trash, or other disruptive activities.

How would this work impact the conifer collection planted by the late UConn Professor Dr. Sidney Waxman?

The former Waxman Conifer Collection began as a piece of previously developed farmland provided to a professor, Dr. Sidney Waxman, upon his hiring at UConn to conduct plant research. Dr. Waxman's work grew on that site for many years, and resided through the early 2000s as a public destination.

However, operations could not be sustained at the property long after his passing, and it has not been an active research site for more than a decade. It also is not part of the University of Connecticut Arboretum's inventory or a part of UConn's educational programming.

Dr. Waxman did not consider the trees in this location to be scientifically valuable and important compared to others he had collected during his work and had planted on the Storrs campus for widespread public viewing, according to plant scientists who worked directly with him before his passing.

Conversation about conditions at the former collection occurred in 2021 between Dr. Waxman's family and the UConn Foundation. At the time and at the family's request, the university expanded Dr. Waxman's favorite and viable cultivars on the main campus and sourced more than two dozen varieties to increase its footprint and diversity. Today, these plants are now a named collection of the internationally certified University of Connecticut Arboretum and its walking tours.

Leadership in UConn Athletics and the College of Agriculture, Health & Natural Resources worked collaboratively in executing an agreement for planning the site's proposed future use as a golf practice facility. It involves potential turfgrass research and preserving several of the existing tree species on site as part of the proposed development, and, if feasible, relocating a large specimen to the Storrs campus to be part of the named collection in the Arboretum.

How would the project be funded?

The project would be fully funded by philanthropic gifts to UConn Athletics.

The university is immensely grateful for donor funding to support projects such as this. However, it is important to note that, the presence of such gifts does not compel the university to develop a facility it otherwise might not have considered. This proposal responds to a specific and well-documented need.

Would the project destabilize the groundwater and contaminate wells, and/or rupture natural springs through bulldozing and flood nearby property, as some have speculated?

No impacts to surrounding wells are expected; an assessment of the operations and management of the facility would be explored during design. An existing potable supply well already exists on-site, and the design would determine whether it is adequate for the proposed use.

Water usage estimates would be generated during design. In addition to the limited irrigation described earlier in this summary, the current conceptual floor plan proposal includes toilets, showers, sinks, and laundry appliances similar to what would be expected from two to three residential dwellings.

Would pesticides be used on the site and if so, how would the university prevent hazards to nearby homes, trees, and wildlife?

The use of any herbicides or pesticides would be subject to review and limited to two greens that would directly flank the building, encompassing approximately 7,500 square feet similar to the size of a single-family residential lawn.

The driving range would not be treated as a fairway, and the tee box would be made of artificial turf. All turfgrass applications would be in accordance with Connecticut and federal requirements and limits.

According to the Natural Diversity Database of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, no known State or federally listed species are on the site.

While most of the parcel drains away from residential properties, the site's subsurface hydrology, drainage and runoff considerations would be reviewed in more detail during the design phase. Proposals would follow the Connecticut Stormwater Quality Manual and Connecticut Guidelines for soil erosion and sediment control, as well as the general permit for the discharge of stormwater and dewatering wastewaters from construction activities, which collectively accounts for stormwater affects before, during and after construction. The engineering design would be scrutinized to avoid or mitigate any potential hydrological impacts.

Nearly one-third of the property would be converted from a moderately overgrown woody and herbaceous species, including non-native invasives, to turf and conservation-grade grasses. Combined with more than 300 acres of adjacent contiguous dense forest under the ownership and control of the Town and UConn, the selectively cleared area would create additional edge habitat of approximately 2,100 linear feet, which favors numerous wildlife species.

What comes next?

UConn has been assessing proposals to initiate the design process and preparing a Post-Scoping Notice regarding potential environmental impacts and responses to the questions and comments received during the Scoping Notice period and its public meeting.

The university will issue a Post-Scoping Notice in the Environmental Monitor during Spring 2026 with its decision, with the options being:

• The project would not go forward.
• Or, an Environmental Impact Evaluation (EIE) would be needed, to be conducted under provisions of the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act. If an EIE is developed, the public would have an opportunity to comment on the EIE at a later date.
• Or, an EIE is not needed, and the university would continue to pursue the project.