PGA Course, Homes Proposed for Land Owned by Bob Hope
The Professional Golfers’ Assn. and a Maryland-based investment firm have submitted a proposal to Ventura County to build a championship golf course and 1,848 homes--each on a one-acre site--on a vast expanse of land four miles south of Simi Valley that is owned by entertainer Bob Hope.
Details of the project will be announced today at a news conference in Westlake Village attended by PGA Commissioner Deane Beman and PGA star Corey Pavin of Oxnard, who will serve as a consultant.
The 2,300-acre complex is planned for an area of eastern Ventura County known as China Flat, according to Peter Kyros, project manager for Potomac Investments Associates of Gaithersburg, Md.
Kyros said plans call for completion of the project by the early 1990s.
The proposal calls for a Tournament Players Club layout, a new design in golf-course architecture that is also known as stadium golf. There are only 12 such courses in the United States, the first of which was built in 1980. Stadium courses feature towering grassy knolls around greens and tees that allow large numbers of tournament spectators without having to construct temporary wooden bleachers.
The only TPC course in California is PGA West in Rancho Mirage, outside Palm Springs, which twice has been the site of the popular Skins Game and the Bob Hope tournament.
The involvement of the PGA in the construction of such a spectator-oriented course in what is now extremely remote land would indicate that the PGA Tour would make the course a frequent stop. Potomac Investments and the PGA combined to build the Avenel TPC course near Washington, D.C. That course has become the site of the PGA’s Kemper Open.
Currently, the regular PGA Tour comes to the Los Angeles area for only the Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. The Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley was the site of the 1987 GTE Seniors Classic, and that event is scheduled for the same course again in March, 1988.
A spokesman at Wood Ranch, which also features a sprawling residential area, said Tuesday that officials at that complex had not heard of the plans to build the TPC layout less than five miles from their course.
Officials at PGA headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., would not discuss the project Tuesday.
Preliminary plans were submitted to the Ventura County Planning Department by Kyros two weeks ago. The deal calls for Hope to sell the land if all of the required environmental impact reports and building permits are approved. A source said Hope, an avid golfer, has offered to donate much of his golf memorabilia, including clubs and other equipment, to the clubhouse of the proposed course.
No financial terms of the agreement were released.
The area is designated as open space in Ventura County’s land-use plan. A vote by the county Board of Supervisors is required for any development.
“We have many steps to go through,” Kyros said, adding that plans for neither the golf course nor the residential neighborhood have been approved.
In 1986, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District broke off negotiations with Hope over a portion of the China Flat area that the district wanted to turn into a public parkland for hiking, backpacking and horseback riding. At that time, district spokesman Rick Johnson said the land was appraised by the district at $1,100 an acre. But Hope’s appraisal of the land was $20,000 an acre, Johnson said.
Wildlife known to live in the area includes golden eagles, prairie falcons, deer and a few mountain lions.
“If I sound a little surprised it’s because I am surprised,” Johnson said Tuesday when told of the development plans. “I’m also sorry to hear it. The land up there is absolutely beautiful. I’d hate to see anything but low-impact development. I can’t imagine 1,800 homes up there.”
Hope, 84, lives in Toluca Lake and has vast real estate holdings in the Valley. He was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
