HUNTINGTON BEACH : Golf Course Issue May Take New Path

City Councilwoman Grace Winchell would like to save the time and effort of a citizens group fighting a proposed 18-hole golf course in Central Park.

Instead of requiring the Save Our Parks group to collect 16,000 signatures in order to put the measure before the voters, the City Council should itself place the measure on the ballot, Winchell said last week. She plans to seek support from fellow council members at tonight’s meeting.

“It seems like a legitimate thing to get on the ballot,” she said. “I’d like to save them the effort of getting the signatures collected.”

The measure on the June or November, 1990, ballot would ask voters whether any future sale or large-scale commercial use of parks and beaches should require voter approval.

The citizens group formed after the City Council voted 5 to 2 on Sept. 5 to build an 18-hole golf course on undeveloped land for Central Park expansion, said Deborah A. Cook, a member of Save Our Parks. But the group decided to include all parks and beaches in the proposed ballot measure because the city has sold or leased other parkland in the past, she said.

Mayor Wes Bannister, who favors contracting with a private company to build and operate the golf course, said Friday that he does not want the council to place the proposal on the ballot. A petition would be the best way for members of Save Our Parks and the City Council to learn how residents feel about the golf course, he said.

“I believe they need to go out and talk to the people, spread the word and tell their side of the story,” he said.

If the city does not contract for the 18-hole course, it would have to spend several million dollars building a nine-hole course near the northeast corner of Golden West Street and Ellis Avenue, under an agreement with local mobile-home residents. A commercial golf course builder would save the city money, Bannister said.