City Opposes Plan for Driving Range
It would be green, all right, but city officials in Moorpark don’t think it belongs in a greenbelt.
The Moorpark City Council is considering sending a letter to the county Planning Department to urge it to reject a proposal to build a 350-yard driving range in the Tierra Rejada Valley next to California 23.
“I’m very sensitive about the greenbelt,” said Mayor Paul Lawrason. “It’s meant to be an open space between Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, and I don’t know if this really fits in with that.”
The three cities and the county signed an agreement pledging to preserve the area as a buffer free of commercial development and high-density housing. The idea was to prevent urban sprawl and maintain a semblance of rural terrain in the east county, Lawrason said.
The proposed driving range would have a 100-space parking lot and a pro shop and be surrounded by large barrier nets to keep balls from flying onto the highway or off the range.
“I like golf and I’d like to see another driving range built,” Lawrason said. “But I just don’t know if this is the right place for that.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
