Golf Course Proposed at Happy Camp Regional Park : Moorpark: Developer calls for 700-acre, 36-hole facility. Environmentalist opposes plan, noting recent discovery of rare habitat at the site.

A public golf course would be built on part of Happy Camp Regional Park in Moorpark under a plan disclosed Wednesday by a local developer.

Ralph Mahan, 55, who owns an orchard next to Happy Camp, said he would like to lease the county-owned park and use the southern 700 acres for a 36-hole course.

Mahan’s proposal for the former ranch land comes on the heels of a failed plan to turn that portion of the park into an 1800s Western-style theme park that would have included a water slide, a 450-room hotel, and a number of air-conditioned tepees.

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In response to Mahan’s idea, county officials have decided to seek proposals next month from golf course designers nationwide, said Blake Boyle, manager of the county’s Recreation Services Department.

Although a golf course would probably have less environmental impact than a theme park, Roseann Mikos, a member of the Moorpark chapter of the Environmental Coalition, said she would oppose a golf course on the site.

“There was a time when I would have supported building a golf course there, but we have new information about what’s there,” she said.

Mikos said recent biological surveys in the area by the California Native Plant Society uncovered rare habitat, and she plans to ask the county to consider protecting the whole area.

Although a half-dozen new golf courses have already been proposed for east Ventura County, Mahan said he is confident that a Happy Camp course would be profitable.

“I have an associate who owns three golf courses in the east county that are doing quite well,” Mahan said. “There are studies out that say the east county could absorb a number of public golf courses.”

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In exchange for using the site, any golf course developer would have to return a percentage of profits to the Department of Recreation Services. The department receives no tax support to pay the $5.2 million it currently takes to run the county’s 10 parks, four beaches and Channel Islands Harbor, Boyle said. Instead, the agency uses money generated by rents and fees.

Boyle estimates that a golf course at Happy Camp could generate about $250,000 per year for the county agency. He said the department receives more than $400,000 each year from leasing land for the Soule Recreation Area golf course in Ojai.

The county acquired Happy Camp Regional Park from the state in 1983, and has entertained a number of proposals to lease the property for recreational development.

The theme park proposal fell through recently when the developers, Encino-based Quor Resorts, decided not to renew their option to lease the property.

“There were a number of factors why we did not renew our option,” said Bill Norred, Quor’s president. “The downturn in the economy being one, but also the surprising amount of opposition we got toward the end. That’s something we didn’t receive when we first approached the county in 1987.”

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Local politicians and Moorpark residents publicly criticized Quor’s proposal, saying the town did not want a “Disneyland” in their back yard.

Mahan said he did not expect the same sort of opposition to a golf course, which would include a considerable amount of open space.

“My family’s been in the area for generations,” he said. “Growing up in the community, I’ve always thought it was one of the most beautiful spots in eastern Ventura County.”

By providing the county with more revenue, he said, the proposal also could help preserve the park’s northern 3,000 acres.

“It would earn a lot of revenue for the county that would help pay to keep up the upper park and the local citizens should be very happy that the traffic would be minimal compared to almost any other proposal,” Mahan said.

Twenty-five years ago, Mahan conceived the idea for a park at Happy Camp, and then spent four years working to get the state of California to purchase the property, said Bruce Strathearn, whose family owned the ranch at the time.