Joint Agreement OKd on Golf Course Plan

Long-awaited plans for a golf course at Hill Canyon near Thousand Oaks moved closer to reality this week when the City Council and Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved a joint agreement for part of the land.

The proposed 277-acre complex, called the Hill Canyon Regional Recreational Facilities Project, would include an 18-hole municipal golf course, a wetlands preservation area and trails for hiking and horseback riding. It would be off Santa Rosa Road near the city’s Hill Canyon sewage treatment plant.

Thousand Oaks owns most of the required land but needs 27 acres, or a little more than half of the county’s adjoining Santa Rosa Park, to complete the complex. The project is in the planning stages and ground is not expected to be broken until at least 1998.

If the project moves forward, the county would receive $250,000 for its land plus a portion of golf course user fees--estimated at $60,000 to $70,000 annually--for the next 25 years.

Supervisors voted 5 to 0 Tuesday to approve the agreement, and the City Council voted 4 to 0 early Wednesday. Councilwoman Elois Zeanah was absent.

County officials plan to use money from the agreement to develop the 23 remaining acres of Santa Rosa Park by building an equestrian center, community center, sports fields and horse-staging areas--facilities that residents of the unincorporated Santa Rosa Valley have been demanding for years.