Impact of Proposed Golf Course Under Study

It is, many residents agree, a perfect place.

Hill Canyon’s center seam is threaded by the ambling Arroyo Conejo. Fat morning glories meander lazily up hillsides. Birds dip and dart across the hollow. Only industrious insects break the silence.

Trouble is, Thousand Oaks residents can’t decide whether Hill Canyon is perfect just as it is, or whether it’s perfect for a golf course.

This 5-year-old debate pitting self-described Greens against the lovers of greens may boil over anew with the release of an environmental impact report at month’s end.

Once the report has been issued, circulated publicly and discussed, the path will be clear for a panel of city and park district officials to vote on the $16.2-million proposal--which includes a nature center and a web of trails around the canyon--as early as October or November.

Regardless of what the new environmental work-up reveals, some residents are steadfastly opposed to any development in the near pristine canyon, usually empty except for the oaks, a few equestrians and the occasional forbidden four-wheeler.

Activist Joy Meade believes the golf course can only sully the canyon. Meade and another resident have produced a video about Hill Canyon, now airing on public access TV, to pique conservationists’ interest in the canyon.

“This is all the riparian habitat we have left,” Meade said, pointing to lush stream-side vegetation during a recent hike. “I plan to fight this [proposal], not for political reasons, but because I value this canyon. It’s vital.”

Despite that contention, some city officials and golfers maintain that the canyon is all but unutilized. Adding an ecosensitive golf course would preserve the canyon--even remove intrusive plants not native to the area--and raise money for the purchase and maintenance of more open space, they say.

“We are going to set a trend for designing golf courses around the country,” predicted City Councilwoman Judy Lazar, who heads the joint powers authority of city and park district officials considering the proposal. “I think the opponents are reacting to a traditional concept of golf courses and what they do. Our intention is to change that way of thinking. The reality will be different.”

Already, the recreational proposal for the 284-acre back country that links Wildwood Park and the Santa Rosa Valley is evolving to meet some concerns, raised after release of the first environmental report, of environmentalists and regulators, which range from cost to the potential for flooding.

The golf course is expected to encompass about 130 acres of that area. Much of the area’s natural beauty, including heavy, blooming yuccas and scrubby sage, is incorporated into the course’s design.

To reduce harm to the area, a clubhouse banquet facility would be located on a bluff overlooking the 18-hole course on the valley floor. To tee off, golfers would take a tram down the hill to the links.

The golf course is being designed by Ohio-based Michael Hurdzan, a top golf architect known for his environmentally conscious courses.

The new environmental report is expected to describe a golf course that would require the removal of fewer mature oak trees, the grading of less land and the destruction of less wetland habitat than the course’s last incarnation, unveiled in October, said Greg Smith, a Thousand Oaks senior planner.

That proposal entailed the removal of 23 oaks--each would have been replaced by three seedlings--and the destruction of three of 28 acres of wetlands on the site.

Endangered Plant Life

The course is being built around the endangered Lyon’s pentachaeta, a member of the sunflower family. The threatened Conejo Dudleya, a succulent, clings to a hillside high above the course, Smith said. His studies did not find any of the endangered California gnatcatcher, a bird that has vexed many developers, in the area, and he contends that the threatened western pond turtle will not be seriously affected.

The effects to wetlands, and the possibility for the canyon to flood--as it did during last winter’s dramatic storms--worry biologist Walter Wehtje, a Santa Rosa Valley resident who hikes in the canyon.

“When I first heard that there was going to be a golf course, I thought it would be on the abandoned farmland near the mouth of the canyon,” off Santa Rosa Road, Wehtje said. “I thought that wasn’t a bad use.

“When I saw the [environmental report] and realized almost all of it would be in the upper, natural canyon area, I thought it was a truly bad idea,” he continued. “If the city needs a golf course, they should put one where there’s room to move, room to expand, rather than trying to shoehorn a golf course in a very restricted, dynamic area.”

Such concerns are exactly why the process is going through intense study, said parks Commissioner Dennis Gillette, a member of the joint powers authority’s executive board. Feasibility studies and the two environmental reviews have cost about $1.5 million so far.

“It’s absolutely not a done deal,” Gillette said. “It can’t be done until the process is worked through. The process has taken longer than originally anticipated, but I don’t see any urgency in this. I’d rather err on the side of caution than rush something through.”

Some residents also question the proposal’s finances, worried that the project could lose money for the city and parks district rather than earning money that could pay for acquiring open space.

Financial projections belie those worries, said interim City Manager MaryJane V. Lazz.

Based on studies of golf course interest, the Hill Canyon links could attract golfers from a 25-mile radius, particularly local residents who now swamp the aging municipal Los Robles course.

If built, the more challenging Hill Canyon golf course is expected to draw up to 65,000 rounds of golf a year, compared to Los Robles’ 87,000.

If greens fees are set between $35 and $40--a little higher than the county average of $30--the course could easily see annual profits of about $500,000, Lazz said. That would be money above and beyond the cost of servicing the debt on $19.2 million in municipal bonds, financed over 25 years.

Flexible Financing

The financing plan has plenty of wriggle room for the joint powers authority, she added. Officials could elect to lower greens fees to attract more golfers, or raise them and still turn enough profit to pay for other recreational endeavors.

Calculations or no, Councilwoman Linda Parks is not convinced.

Although she likes the idea of increasing horseback-riding options in the canyon, the idea of the city financing a large project makes her skittish.

For one, she would rather see a clubhouse and banquet facility run by a private enterprise than a public agency. Another concern is that “the agency that is proposing this is also approving this and is also funding this,” Parks said.

The city is also enmeshed in federal and state probes into a sewer spill that could cost a few million dollars in fines and legal fees. The fate of a vehicle licensing fee--which generates more than $4 million for the city a year--is still at stake in Sacramento. One bid for part of a 15-year, $71.2-million upgrade of the city’s waste-water treatment system came in way above expectations.

“I don’t think the city needs to be financing large capital projects right now, particularly when we have some large projects that are needed that we have to finance,” Parks said. “We don’t need to look for extracurriculars or build unnecessary projects.”