City Urged to Take Another Shot at Golf Range Design

After spending almost $700,000 to redesign the driving range at Los Robles Greens, spending more money to redo the job may sound like the municipal version of a double bogey.

But in the eyes of city leaders, rescuing Thousand Oaks’ vaunted vistas by removing the driving range’s ugly new 100-foot poles amounts to shooting par.

Now that work is complete on a redesign of the public driving range--needed to settle a lawsuit with a nearby property owner--Thousand Oaks leaders realize they have created a monstrosity.

And the portentous black poles--which support thick safety netting to protect an adjacent office building from being pelted with runaway orbs--may not be there for good.

Councilman Andy Fox will ask his colleagues Tuesday to consider redesigning the driving range one more time as part of the dilapidated golf course’s planned overhaul.

“While I recognize that council approved the contract to redesign the driving range with these safety nets, it is now apparent that the actual height of the poles and the visual impact is not appropriate for our community,” Fox wrote in a report to the council.

He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Councilwomen Linda Parks and Elois Zeanah both said they had also been planning to bring up the same issue in response to countless complaints by teed-off residents.

“I went to a meeting of the Westlake Joint Board [of Homeowner Assns.], and I got an earful,” Parks said. “People think the poles are an eyesore, as ugly as the Civic Arts Plaza. This city has highway visual standards, and there is no way those poles adhere to those standards.”

Zeanah said she felt city officials should have warned the City Council of the hideous nature of the giant poles and nets.

“When I saw those poles go up, I was appalled,” Zeanah said. “I didn’t know they would mar our views, and I felt betrayed by the staff for not telling us what the visual impacts were going to be. This is just another waste of tax dollars, I guess. It was a big mistake.”

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Fox is proposing that Thousand Oaks run the driving range as is--and leave the poles intact--until the city can raise a little money from the range’s operations. Then, when redesigning the entire 33-year-old course in a few years, Thousand Oaks could reconfigure the range with help from a golf architect to avoid visual impacts.

In the past, the range has brought Thousand Oaks about $40,000 a year, or about one-fifth of the total revenues it was generating. The rest went to the golf course managers, Angelo Ruggiero Inc.

But under a new contract with manager M.F. Daily, Thousand Oaks will receive all driving range revenues.

Parks said she would like to remove the poles as soon as possible, but would consider waiting if it is the best financial option.

“I believe the sooner we remedy the situation, the better,” she said. “But I have to reconsider the financing options. If it is cheaper to take care of this in a few years from now, maybe that’s what we have to do.

“When the city officials saw that first pole go up, they should have realized that it was a mistake,” she added. “It should have stopped right then. It’s unfortunate that this whole thing happened in the first place.”

Thousand Oaks’ problems began in 1995, when neighboring landowner Al Dickens sued the city, claiming he had been knocked unconscious by a stray golf ball. Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane then ruled against Thousand Oaks, issuing an injunction preventing the city from operating the range until it could ensure that not a single ball rained down on Dickens’ adjacent office building.

The driving range was closed last March.

The City Council then voted to redesign the range and upgrade its safety elements, a project city officials estimated at $250,000. But after studying the problem further with help from a consultant, city officials determined the work would cost more than twice that amount.

City officials also determined that preventing all balls from hitting Dickens’ office building was going to require extreme measures.

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The resulting metal poles are certainly not anyone’s idea of aesthetic perfection, said Councilman Mike Markey. But Thousand Oaks was left with little choice other than closing the range for good, he said.

“Unfortunately, the poles have to be high because of the court order,” Markey said. “If one ball goes over those nets, we’re in trouble. I don’t know what we can do to make it look nicer.”

Markey said he’s certainly open to looking at options, but he is wary of rushing into another redesign now that the driving range is operational again.

“We can look at it later on down the road, but I’d be leery of doing this sooner,” Markey said. “The whole reason we had to do this is a lawsuit, and there really aren’t many good options.”