Conservancy Seeks to Delay Tierra Rejada Golf Plan

MOORPARK —  Asserting that it wasn’t notified of public hearings on plans for a golf course in the Tierra Rejada Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has filed an appeal with the county asking it to reconsider the project until further studies are conducted by the organization.

The appeal, filed Monday by conservancy ecologist Paul Edelman, asks Ventura County supervisors to consider delaying the project until more studies are completed to gauge the development’s potential impact on the surrounding environmental and wildlife corridors.

The appeal also asks that a 55-acre halo of land surrounding the proposed golf course that developers plan to earmark as privately held open space be donated to the public to ensure its protection against any future housing or commercial development.

“Basically, we filed this appeal so we’ll have an opportunity to make public some of our concerns,” said Rorie Skei, the conservancy’s northern division manager. “It’s a good project, but we’d like to see the Board of Supervisors take another look at the development and see if there’s any other mitigation efforts that can be added to make it an even better project.”

The conservancy, an advocate for open space throughout the region, is concerned that the golf course’s construction may be detrimental to animals and native plants.

While the appeal request does not condemn the project as a blight on east county communities or their swaths of hilly open space, it does ask developers to make small modifications to their plan to ensure that the golf course would have as little impact on the natural landscape and ecology as possible.

Approved unanimously last month by the county Planning Commission, the $12.5-million public golf course proposed by Malibu-based developer Crumpler & Kruger Commercial Real Estate, would spread out over 183 acres of undeveloped land along the Moorpark Freeway near Tierra Rejada Road in Moorpark. Unless appealed, the commission’s vote on a golf course is final.

In addition to the 18-hole course being designed by acclaimed golf course architect Robert Cupp of Atlanta, the project would include four shallow lakes, three waterfalls and a meandering stream--all man-made.

The course would also have an unlighted driving range, a 5,000-square-foot pro shop and restaurant, an 8,400-square-foot maintenance building and parking for 190 cars.

The developer hopes to have the course open by spring 1999.

County planners said they were puzzled at the appeal, because developers are not asking to develop any property outside of the golf course parcel and because courses are allowed under county zoning regulations to be built in open space areas. The Tierra Rejada greenbelt separates Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

The Board of Supervisors has not scheduled an appeals hearing, but it could go before them within the next few weeks.

But Keith Jajko, an assistant to Supervisor Judy Mikels, said that from what he knew of the conservancy’s appeal, the issue may not go that far.

“It doesn’t sound like [the conservancy] wants to stop the project altogether. . . . They just want some minor adjustments,” he said. “It sounds like it’s something that can be worked out.”