$12.5-Million Plan for East County Golf Course OKd

County officials approved plans Thursday for a new public golf course, hearing plenty from golfers weary of hard-to-get tee times but hardly a word from critics who fear the project will bring more growth to an undeveloped area of eastern Ventura County.

Barring an appeal that would put the matter before the Board of Supervisors, the vote by the county Planning Commission is final.

Developers said construction will start in about 90 days and the $12.5-million course should be open for play in about a year.

The decision has excited many county golfers who say a dearth of public courses in Ventura County keeps them waiting in long lines or not golfing at all.

“If they build it, I will come,” Port Hueneme golfer Penny Bohannon said.

The course is to be built in the Tierra Rejada Valley, bordered by Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. The area is covered by an informal greenbelt agreement signed years ago among the county and the three cities.

The land for the course is across the street from the greenbelt’s border, and its zoning as open space allows for the construction of golf courses.

No one spoke in opposition to the project Thursday, despite concerns from some the course would attract new housing and commercial development to the rural valley.

The project’s most significant critic was Moorpark Mayor Patrick Hunter, who wrote the commission to say the course would lure new growth to the rural valley.

Neither Hunter nor other Moorpark officials attended the meeting and could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the course--to be built entirely with private money--was lauded by the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce and several Moorpark residents.

“I just don’t understand any objection to a golf course,” Moorpark resident Eloise Brown said. “I think it’s irrational to oppose it.”

Planning Commissioner Michael Wesner, a Moorpark resident, criticized the mayor during the meeting, calling the opposition “totally ludicrous.”

He said the project complies with all zoning laws and promises to bring recreational opportunities for Moorpark adults and children.

Developers say they are dedicated to establishing a junior golfing program to introduce youngsters to the sport. They also pledge to employ six to 10 Ventura County teenagers each summer to do everything from shagging balls to working in the clubhouse.

“I’m on the edge with these people,” Wesner said of Moorpark city officials. “It’s always, ‘No, no, no, no.’ I’m just beside myself that my City Council could come forward with this letter, and yet we have heard testimony after testimony from city residents who are in favor of this project.”

Malibu-based developer Crumpler & Kruger Commercial Real Estate plans to build the course on 183 acres at the Moorpark Freeway and Tierra Rejada Road.

The 18-hole course will be designed by golf course architect Robert E. Cupp of Atlanta, creator of such acclaimed courses as Legends in Nashville and Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon.

Speaking passionately about the “shadows and contours” that characterize the courses he designs, Cupp said the site planned for the Tierra Rejada Golf Club “is as nice a land as I’ve worked with in some time.”

The course will include four shallow lakes, three waterfalls and a meandering stream. It also will include a driving range, a 5,000-square-foot pro shop and restaurant, an 8,400-square-foot maintenance building and public parking for 190 cars.

Developer Theodore M. Kruger said his firm has no desire to encourage additional development in the area.

“Stand-alone golf by itself, with no housing, no extra commercial support other than the basic clubhouse, is great business,” Kruger said. “We believe in it.”

Still, some critics believe the course will be a popular draw and will spur additional growth in the region.

Several environmentalists, slow-growth advocates and public officials, including county Supervisor Frank Schillo of Thousand Oaks, said the county needs to rethink whether the county’s open space land-use designations should allow for golf courses.

Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks said greenbelt agreements in some cities are written to include not only what can occur inside the boundaries, but on the immediate outskirts as well.

“I love the Tierra Rejada Valley,” Parks said. “It would really be a shame to see that start getting changed from natural open space to golf courses and their amenities.”

John Buse, an attorney at the Ventura office of the Environmental Defense Center, informed the commission of concerns over the 388 to 457 acre-feet of water the course will use each year. But because a golf course does not violate zoning for the area, the project was not opposed on land-use grounds.

But Buse said the approval points to the need to give the county’s open-space designations a second look.

“You put a golf course between three cities and it’s an entity that will draw other development to it,” Buse said after the commission’s vote. “That’s something that should have been looked at more closely.”