Driving Range Gets Another Whack

The operator of a problem-plagued golf driving range at Los Angeles City College will be allowed to take another swing at making safety repairs to his $6-million recreation facility before being ordered to close.

Los Angeles Community College District administrators say they have set aside a deadline that expired last week for Hee Kyun Cho to fully enclose the range to prevent golf balls from flying out.

Officials on Sept. 16 declared Cho in default of his lease of college land because of errant balls -- some of which were raining down on the campus day-care center. They gave Cho 60 days to cover the 190-yard practice facility with safety netting, describing it as his “last chance.”

But when the deadline passed Nov. 17, college officials were in a more charitable mood.

“He’s working on details of the encapsulation. We could have proceeded with the implementation of the notice of default,” said Priscilla Meckley, the district’s director of facilities planning and development. “Based on his willingness, and the progress he has made, we’re giving him a little extra time.”

Meckley said mid-January is the new deadline.

“It’s perceived as, ‘This is it,’ the ‘drop-dead deadline,’ ” she said.

Along with safety netting, the range still lacks certification by the Office of the State Architect that it meets state safety and construction specifications. Meckley said that certification must be obtained by the January deadline.

Cho’s Majestic Golf Land range has been open to the public since May 7, even though it lacks such certification.

Meckley wouldn’t comment on reports that at least one golf ball had landed outside the range since September. But she noted that the day-care center would be relocated from beneath a target at the end of the range.

An emergency resolution by district trustees authorizes spending up to $1 million to move the child-care center to a site next to the range’s three-story tee structure.

A portion of the range clubhouse is to be used for children’s classrooms. Meckley said the current site of the center will be used for future campus construction.

Cho, who denies that any golf balls have escaped from his range, said he thinks he can meet the new January deadline.

But critics of the range were outraged that college officials did not seize the opportunity to permanently close the golfing facility.

Built on the last vacant piece of the City College campus under a renewable 10-year lease that pays the college district $120,000 annually, the range has drawn fire from Los Angeles City Council members and others as a misuse of college resources.

Last week, City College’s student body president, Cesar Castellanos, appeared at a district board meeting to urge trustees to use eminent domain to buy out Cho’s lease.

Castellanos and others have argued that the 4.3-acre range site should be used to add classrooms or for other college purposes.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Castellanos said. “This is a public college. It’s public land leased to private investors for private use. They’re cheating us and looking more and more incompetent,” he said of district officials.

City College alumnus Duke Russell complained that officials have “continually let the range off the hook” for errant golf balls. And he said the driving range’s clubhouse is a curious place for children’s center classrooms.

“Where will the little kids play?” Russell asked. “Maybe they can give them buckets of balls to hit.”