Is San Miguel de Allende Getting a Fourth Golf Course? The Facts So Far

Everyone in San Miguel is talking about the golf course, & not everyone has the same facts. Here is what has actually been said on the record, what the official water numbers show, & why I think the water part matters more to owners than the 18 holes.

Is San Miguel de Allende getting a fourth golf course?

Not at this point. On September 18, 2026, Guanajuato Governor Libia Dennise García said publicly that there is no authorization to build a new golf course in San Miguel de Allende. The mayor, Mauricio Trejo, says applications for several golf projects were filed, but no permit has been granted & nothing is being built.

The governor made the statement during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s press conference in Guanajuato, as reported by SDP Noticias & NW Noticias. Two days later the mayor told reporters, per Periódico Correo, that there are applications for more than one golf project, that none has a permit, & that any project must still meet municipal, state & federal requirements. So the honest answer is "no, & it is still an open file," which is a very different thing from a shovel in the ground.

What was proposed next to El Charco del Ingenio?

Reporting based on information obtained by El Charco del Ingenio places the project on land bordering the botanical garden & its Ecological Preservation Zone, north of the city, in a polygon of roughly 500 hectares. The design was linked to former golfer Lorena Ochoa’s firm. No approved master plan has been published.

El País reported the 500-hectare figure & the September 2025 social media post in which Ochoa announced the design, a post that was later deleted. Her team has said she does not own the land & participates as a partner in the design firm, according to Ingrata Noticia. Talk around town has included homes, commercial space, a vineyard & even a gas station on the site, but I have not found any of those in a published document, so treat them as unconfirmed. What we can say is that 500 hectares is a lot more land than an 18-hole course needs, which is why people are asking what else would come with it.

Why is water the bigger story?

Because the aquifer under San Miguel is already in deficit on paper. CONAGUA reports average recharge of about 28.6 million cubic meters a year for the San Miguel de Allende aquifer, against roughly 34.5 million cubic meters of registered extraction. After required natural discharge, the official balance is short about 12.4 million cubic meters annually.

Those figures come straight from CONAGUA’s aquifer availability table for Guanajuato (aquifer 1107, figures in millions of cubic meters), & the agency’s earlier 2009 study of the same aquifer already showed a deficit, so this is a long-running trend rather than a new headline. A golf course is a very visible water user, which is why it became the lightning rod. For an owner, the practical side is how your house gets its water, whether it has a cistern & a tinaco, & how the neighborhood is served, all of which I cover in what buyers should know about water in San Miguel.

How many golf courses does San Miguel de Allende have now?

Three: Malanquín, Ventanas de San Miguel & Zirándaro. Each sits inside a residential community, & together they are part of why San Miguel attracts buyers who want a golf lifestyle alongside the historic center. A fourth course would be the first proposed right next to El Charco del Ingenio.

The list of existing courses is confirmed by SDP Noticias. If golf is part of what you want here, you can already live on a course today, & the neighborhood guides for Malanquín & Las Ventanas walk through what each community is like, from lot sizes to the drive into Centro.

What are residents doing about it?

They are organizing. A Change.org petition against the project passed 19,000 signatures by September 1, 2026, & local outlet TV Independencia reported more than 52,000 people opposing it by mid-September. Opposition has also shown up in public, from buttons at the Mercado Sano to runners at the Carrera de la Conspiración.

The petition itself asks municipal, state & federal authorities to reject the project. Fábrica de Periodismo reported the 19,000 figure along with the municipality’s confirmation that no authorization was approved, & TV Independencia reported the 52,000 figure on September 15. Whatever you think about golf, it is a good reminder of how engaged this community is when something touches its landscape.

What does this mean if you own or want to own in San Miguel?

In the short term, very little changes, since nothing is approved or under construction. Over the long term, water is the fact to understand before you own here. Ask how a house is supplied, how much storage it has, & how the neighborhood fared in the dry season, because those answers affect daily life & resale.

I would rather my clients know this now than discover it after closing. It also belongs in your budget, since pipas, pumps & storage show up in the real cost of living in San Miguel. If you are comparing homes, the market updates show what is selling & at what price, & current listings let you see which areas & property types are available right now.

What should you watch next?

Watch for three things: any permit or land-use change published by the municipality, any environmental impact filing at the state or federal level, & any public master plan for the 500-hectare site. Until one of those appears, a fourth golf course remains a proposal on paper.

I will keep following this & update the post if anything changes. Tell me what you think, & send this to anyone who lives here or is thinking about owning here. If you are starting to plan a move, The Insider’s Guide is free & covers the ten things I tell every client first.

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