OJAI : Judge Says Policy May Block Golf Course
A literal interpretation of Ventura County’s water policy does not appear to allow officials to approve a private golf course in the Ojai Valley, a judge said Thursday.
“The problem I have is it’s a very specific ordinance,” said Superior Court Judge William A. Peck. “I didn’t draft it. I assume somebody in the county drafted it.”
Peck is being asked by the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County to overturn a 1993 permit allowing the Farmont Corp. to build a private golf resort on 200 acres it owns along California 150.
The judge on Thursday continued the hearing to Monday, when he will probably take the matter under submission.
Coalition members contend that the county water policy requires that golf course developers use reclaimed water--or treated sewer water--to irrigate the greens, tees and fairways.
County planners included conditions in the permit they say require Farmont to begin using mostly reclaimed water on the golf course before 2001, in effect granting the developers an eight-year grace period.
Supervisors would be unlikely to shut down the golf course in 2001 just because Farmont failed to use reclaimed water to irrigate the course, said coalition attorney Philip A. Seymour.
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