City Explores Plan for New Golf Course

Hoping to satisfy public demand for more golf courses--and make a little money along the way--elected leaders from the City Council and the Conejo Recreation and Park District met Tuesday to discuss decade-old plans for a golf course and outdoor recreational center at Hill Canyon.

Council members and park commissioners reviewed a consultant’s conceptual land-use plan for the 300-acre facility, which would be the second municipal golf course in Thousand Oaks, and formed an ad hoc committee of two members from each board to oversee its development. Judy Lazar and Mike Markey will represent the City Council and Susan Holt and Dennis Gillette will represent the park district.

The Hill Canyon Regional Recreational Facilities Project, as it has been dubbed, would develop an 18-hole golf course more challenging than the city’s Los Robles Greens course. The project would also create a wetlands preservation area, and trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. The project is expected to cost about $10 million to $11 million.

The complex would be co-owned by the park district and the city. Anticipated profits from its operation would be used to fund the mutual responsibilities of both agencies, such as the purchase and maintenance of open space.

Construction is not expected to begin for another two years.

The 32-year-old Los Robles Greens, which is undergoing a modernization, has averaged more than 100,000 rounds a year, making it one of the most popular courses in Southern California.

In addition to the Hill Canyon golf course, Thousand Oaks leaders are considering building a public course in the 326-acre Broome Ranch property in Newbury Park

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Hill Canyon, the site of Thousand Oaks’ waste-water treatment plant, is off Santa Rosa Road.

The new links, which would have a clubhouse and entrance off Rancho Conejo Boulevard, would be Thousand Oaks’ fifth course, not counting the Westlake Village Golf Course on the county line. The city has three private golf courses: the North Ranch Country Club, the Sherwood Country Club and the Sunset Hills Country Club.

In July, council members voted to hire Deloitte & Touche, LLP to update an economic analysis of the golf course done in 1992. The purpose of the report was to make sure there was still room for another course in golf-rich eastern Ventura County.

The consultant found that the Hill Canyon course would attract a sufficient number of people within a 25-mile radius to pay for itself over time. After its second year of operation, the course would likely generate $1.4 million in annual revenue after operating costs. But much of that money would go to repay construction loans.

The consultant also concluded that there are two ways to complete the project: a city public works approach or a public-private partnership.

“How the project is constructed, and by whom, is an important decision that needs to be made as soon as possible,” said city Finance Director Robert Biery

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The ad hoc committee will meet regularly to discuss the next steps the project should take, including a design plan and environmental impact report. Thousand Oaks and Ventura County, which owns part of the site next to Santa Rosa Road, have reached agreement to share part of the expected revenue from the golf course.

Because the plan would require Thousand Oaks to annex some of the unincorporated Hill Canyon property into the city borders, City Manager Grant Brimhall said some Camarillo city officials and residents of the Santa Rosa Valley, which lies between the two cities, were concerned about the project.

“They don’t want this to be the first domino, with several more dominoes to follow,” Brimhall said. “We have assured them that we have no intent of annexing the Santa Rosa Valley.”