More Water Studies Ordered for Ojai Valley Golf Course

Developers of a proposed Ojai Valley golf course must conduct additional water studies before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors will consider approving the project.

The board ordered the studies Tuesday after Supervisor John Flynn of Oxnard changed his mind on the water issue.

Flynn last week dismissed concerns that proposed changes to the 200-acre project necessitated further analysis of whether there would be enough water. But on Tuesday, he switched his vote, completing the majority needed to require the water study.

Supervisors Steve Bennett and Kathy Long also voted to include water in a supplemental environmental analysis.

The Board of Supervisors approved Farmont Golf Course in 1993. But the project was delayed for nearly a decade by lawsuits filed by an environmental group.

Although, originally pitched as a private course offering no more than 35 rounds a day, New York developer Intell Management now wants a public course offering 130 rounds.

After the meeting, Flynn said officials from Ojai, Ventura and the Casitas Municipal Water District had contacted him when they learned the vote would be reconsidered. The supervisor said he changed his vote because no studies have been done on how much surface water and ground water would be drawn from the Ventura River for the golf course.

An Intell spokesman, who said he opposes further water analysis, was unsure whether the project would proceed.

“That is something my client will have to decide,” lawyer Lindsay F. Nielson said.