Plan for Driving Range Near Greenbelt Is No Gimmie

There’s just a long row of eucalyptus trees now, plus a few stone walls and a rustic wooden sign, but it’s enough to worry officials in Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

Ralph Mahan has been grooming his 25-acre strip of land along Tierra Rejada Road for months. He has big plans for the property. He has the money, the water and the expertise to do it.

He just can’t convince city officials that he should be allowed to build a golf driving range across the street from the mostly undeveloped greenbelt that separates the three cities.

His is one of at least four projects that have been proposed recently for the 2,200-acre rural buffer zone that is dotted with small farms, barns, ranch homes and stables.

For years, the three cities and the county have acted in a united front to stop development in the greenbelt, which is meant to preserve the rural character of the Tierra Rejada Valley and prevent urban sprawl.

A two-page “gentleman’s agreement”--signed in 1982 by officials from the county, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, and in 1983 by officials from Moorpark--is meant to preserve the rural buffer zone among the three eastern Ventura County cities.

The land is in the unincorporated portion of the county and thus falls under the purview of county planners, who look to the three surrounding cities for input when they review projects planned for the greenbelt.

Even though Mahan’s proposal is not actually in the greenbelt--the edge of the greenbelt is just across the road from his land--it is too close for comfort, some government officials say.

“That’s really the rub,” Thousand Oaks Planner John Prescott said. “The Tierra Rejada is a special area that we are all very protective of.”

The three city councils have told county planners that they do not want Mahan’s driving range built. They fear that it might attract other commercial development to the area.

Another driving range has been proposed for land across the street from Mahan’s property on a parcel that is inside the greenbelt.

And the landowners next to that project want to build about 14 homes on 140 acres of land in the heart of the valley.

On Wednesday night, the Moorpark City Council gave a thumbs down to a fourth proposal from a Brookline, Mass., developer who wanted to build a small subdivision of seven homes in the shadow of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The same housing plan is scheduled to go before the Simi Valley City Council on Monday. Officials from Thousand Oaks have already sent the county a letter in opposition this plan.

The backers of the second driving range are the same landowners who in 1987 donated the 100 acres to build the Reagan library, which is the only significant development approved so far for the Tierra Rejada greenbelt.

“I was worried when we signed off on the library deal that it would be growth-inducing,” Moorpark City Councilman John Wozniak said.

Gary Baker, a representative of Norfolk Ventura Properties, which would build the seven-home subdivision, says the development would be environmentally sensitive.

These luxury ranch homes would each be on a 10-acre lot, Baker said.

As an incentive for approving its deal, the company offered to give the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District about 240 acres of land, including Mount McCoy--a prominent Simi Valley hill topped with a cross.

As a good-faith measure, the company has already transferred about 80 acres of land to the park district.

“The only thing I hear is ‘God, I don’t want anything to happen to the greenbelt,’ ” Baker said. “Nobody ever addresses the merits of the project itself, which is disappointing.”

The small subdivision would use Presidential Drive--the route into the Reagan library--to access the homes, which would be concealed from the surrounding hillsides and the library, he said.

Under the property’s present zoning, homes could be built on 40-acre lots. Baker said that if his company’s proposal to rezone for smaller lots is not approved, Norfolk Ventura could use all the land it owns, including the land it would donate to the park district, and build seven or eight homes.

“But we’d rather not do that,” he said. “Still, I’m not naive about what’s going on. But I would hope that the cities wouldn’t have such a knee-jerk reaction every time something is proposed for the greenbelt.”

Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason, who voted this week to send a letter in opposition to the Norfolk Ventura plan, actually agreed with Baker’s assessment.

“I thought there were some possibilities there,” Lawrason said. “But we don’t seem to be open to those possibilities.

“When it comes to the greenbelt, we want to protect it at all costs.