They’re Teed Off : Golf Players Try to Stymie Condo Plan

Hoping to prevent a golf course from becoming a “bunch of shops and a condo,” a group of Buena Park residents today will present the city Planning Commission with petitions containing more than 5,000 signatures, organizer Richard Ormsby said.

The petitioners say this is their first step in trying to save the 23-acre Big Tee golf course from being rezoned from recreational to commercial and residential, said Richard Ormsby, president of the Big Tee senior citizens club. “If the Planning Commission recommends rezoning, we will try to get it on the ballot in a special election,” Ormsby said.

But Rick Sowder, acting planning director for Buena Park, said the staff already has recommended the project because of the income and housing it will bring to the city.

“It is a good project,” Sowder said. “The staff has recommended approval. We hate to lose any open space, but we already have open space well above the national average.”

Collecting Signatures

Ormsby, 75, said other avid Big Tee golf players, including James Creech, collected the signatures in little more than a month’s time from residents in Buena Park, La Habra, Whittier, Brea and Newport Beach. “Some people even as far away as San Dimas who play here signed the petition,” Ormsby said.

“Our whole senior citizen club is upset,” Creech, 65, said. “We have several who play who are in their 80s, and they just couldn’t get around to another course.”

The golf course, which opened 27 years ago, on some days is used by more than 1,000 people, Ormsby said. “I have been playing there for 17 years,” he added. Because it is a three-par, or short course, many elderly find it “their last resort,” he said.

Jim Walker of Buena Park, who plays regularly at the course, said the area has enough shopping centers, but inexpensive golf courses are becoming increasingly scarce.

Question of Money

“People in Buena Park rate this golf course very high. And it only cost $2.50 to play. Not everyone can afford to join the private clubs and pay their prices,” Walker said.

The Big Tee golf course is owned by Gordon McComber, who could not be reached for comment. The land is leased by Marvin Sowder, who said he would reserve comment until after tonight’s Planning Commission meeting.

Hughes Investments, the proposed commercial developer of the land, and J.M. Peters Co. Inc., the proposed residential developer, are based in Newport Beach.

“We have already received about 1,100 signatures,” Sowder said, “and I expect we will receive some (today), but the staff’s approval is already in writing. The project will generate sales tax and the 71-unit, median-range housing will be very popular.”