Officials Back Public Golf Course

County officials will ask supervisors on Tuesday to invite proposals from golf course developers to build an 18-hole public course at Camarillo Regional Park.

The course would be built on 327 acres of vacant land that the county targeted for a community park when it acquired the land in 1986.

But the county cannot afford to build the park facilities, in part because voters in 1990 rejected a statewide bond that would have provided $1 million for the facilities, officials said.

Instead, the General Services Agency commissioned a study to determine whether a public golf course is feasible on the site, situated between the Camarillo Springs subdivision and Camarillo State Hospital.

The analysis found that more than 65,000 Ventura County golfers play 1.2 million rounds of golf each year. Another 300,000 rounds are played by out-of-town golfers, the study said.

“The study showed demographic and economic support for the development of eight additional public golf courses in the county,” recreation manager Blake Boyle wrote in his report to the board.

Boyle said the agency has received numerous inquiries from golf development companies interested in building a golf course at Camarillo Regional Park, or elsewhere in Ventura County.

“Public golf course development is viewed as an excellent investment opportunity in Southern California, even in this period of prolonged recession,” Boyle said.