Meeting to Address Golf Course Proposal

The Thousand Oaks City Council and the Conejo Recreation and Park District board will hold a joint meeting Tuesday to discuss plans for a 277-acre public golf course and outdoor recreational center at Hill Canyon.

The purpose of the 7 p.m. meeting at the Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theatre is to review a conceptual land-use plan for the golf course, and to form an ad hoc committee of two council members and two park board members to oversee the project.

The Hill Canyon Regional Recreational Facilities Project, as it is being called, would include an 18-hole golf course, a wetlands preservation area and trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.

Hill Canyon, the site of Thousand Oaks’ waste-water treatment plant, is off Santa Rosa Road. The project, which has been in the works for about a decade, is not expected to break ground for another two years.

In July, council members voted to hire Deloitte & Touche, LLP to update a 1992 economic analysis of the project to determine whether it was still viable.

The consultant found that the course would attract enough people within a 25-mile radius to pay for itself over time. It also concluded there are two ways to complete the project: a public works approach or a public-private partnership.

The ad hoc committee would hold meetings to discuss the plan. Thousand Oaks and Ventura County, which owns a portion of the site, have already hammered out a joint agreement to share part of the expected revenue from the golf course.