HUNTINGTON BEACH : Golf Deleted From Central Park Plan

City Council members reversed an earlier decision and voted this week to eliminate a nine-hole golf course from development plans for the 370-acre Huntington Central Park.

When the council approved the park master plan last month, the golf course was on the list of desirable projects, which also included a 40-acre “urban forest,” a 15-acre fishing and swimming lake, a therapeutic riding stable for the disabled and retention of a shooting range for police and the public.

But Mayor Linda Moulton-Patterson asked for reconsideration of the golf course Monday and then voted to remove it from the plan.

She said she believes that the area, about 20 acres between Golden West and Gothard streets south of Ellis Avenue, should be kept open because it is near an area that is contaminated by methane gas, and it might be costly to install drainage and do other things to build a golf course.

Moulton-Patterson also said the Huntington Central Park golf course can be put on hold because officials are negotiating to establish a similar course at undeveloped Bartlett Park, near Beach Boulevard and Adams Avenue.

“I don’t want my vote misconstrued as being anti-golf because a municipal golf course would be a wonderful asset to the city,” she said. “But Bartlett Park would be a better and less expensive location.”

Council member Jim Silva voted to leave the golf course in the Huntington Central Park plan. Silva said it would be convenient and widely used by senior citizens and would produce revenue for the city.

In previewing plans for the Central Park golf course last month, Community Services Director Ron Hagan told officials that it would feature chaparral and other California native plants in the fairways to present a nature setting. Turf would be installed at the tee boxes, landing areas and greens, he said.