You may wonder why so many people are protesting the changes to parks that have been unexpectedly included in Article 7 of the new CZO, changes that "permit", without question or debate, commercial uses and developments in our public parks that are currently not allowed or are "conditional" uses, meaning they require both public notice and consideration by the City Planning Commission and the City Council for approval. You may think that the people who are in charge of our public parks are "park professionals" and can be trusted with the responsibility of maintaining these precious assets for the pleasure, rest, recreation, and enjoyment of the citizens of New Orleans, as they were intended. You may think that the citizens who have risen up in protest over commercial development in our public parks over the past 15 years are misguided in some way because they question the motives and actions of these "park professionals".

However, the people in charge of New Orleans' public parks act more like property developers than people charged with maintaining parks, and like property developers everywhere, they approach these natural green spaces as if they were no more than undeveloped and underutilized land ripe for construction of whatever their latest money-making project may be. And they have shown themselves capable of telling the concerned public whatever story they think is necessary to further their plans, whether true or not.

A group opposing a new golf course at City Park is asking a federal judge to stop construction at the 250-acre site between Harrison and Filmore avenues.

The City Park for Everyone Coalition, led by plaintiffs Kevin McDunn and Chris Lane, argues the City Park Improvement Association and Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is partially funding the golf course, failed to give the public enough chances to comment on the design for the $24.5 million championship course and golf complex and didn't consider all of the environmental impacts.

The lawsuit says the New Orleans City Park Improvement Association was determined to dedicate a huge chunk of land to golf -- "something that it admits is not particularly profitable in light of the large operating budget City Park has every year."

Among other claims, the lawsuit accuses City Park of failing to disclose that 5.5 acres of Couterie Forest nature area would be cleared out for the golf course when the park's board approved a master plan in 2011. A map in the master plan labeled the acreage as "natural resource area" rather than a golf course.

Hours after a man fell out of a tree in City Park in March, the cypress where he had lived for 11 days in protest was felled, the branches swept away to make room for a new golf course. What that chopped-down tree represents has sparked a debate over the future of City Park, one of the nation's largest urban parks at 1,300 acres.

For park leaders, it's a relatively small sacrifice toward building a financially stable and more attractive public space, while using the game of golf to also fund a socially minded mission of affordable housing and support services at the nearby former St. Bernard project.

But for opponents of the new golf course, it represents a bad investment of public dollars in a declining, elitist sport with fewer players and more courses closing nationwide -- at the expense of an urban haven of natural beauty and wildlife.

Is a $24.5 million championship course and facilities a wise investment as the golf industry struggles? The answer comes down to whether enough tourists, conventioneers and locals want to pay to play.

"We are extremely confident that we'll have a first-rate golf complex that is sized appropriately for the park," said Bob Becker, City Park's CEO, adding the viability of the course has been studied in depth. "No one has an incentive to build a loser," he said. "We strongly believe the golf course to be effective."

The new course is being built between Harrison and Filmore avenues, along Couterie Forest and over the footprint of another flooded course. It will sit across Filmore Avenue from a driving range and the North golf course, which opened in 2008 and will be part of the new complex.

The project is financed through a combination of public and private money: $6 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $9.5 million from the state's capital outlay budget and $8.9 million from the Bayou District Foundation, a nonprofit affordable housing developer contracted to manage the 383-acre golf complex. Its facilities will also include a clubhouse for the championship course. The Bayou District Foundation in turn is partnering with PGA Tour Golf Course Properties to operate the complex.

Bayou District will take a share of golf course profits to pay for its ongoing work redeveloping the former St. Bernard housing project into a mixed-income community known as Columbia Parc.