Article taken from the
Santa Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Golf course
developers to offer scaled-back plan
Critics concerned about holes on bluffs
By MELINDA
BURNS
NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
3/3/03
In hopes of one last chance, representatives of two
Newport Beach investment firms will ask the state Coastal Commission
on Wednesday to reconsider its recent unanimous rejection of the Dos
Pueblos Golf Links project on the Gaviota coast.
The developers, CHP Dos Pueblos Associates LLC and Makar Properties LLC, say they would give up their proposed nine-hole golf course and part of a driving range to protect the California red-legged frogs, monarch butterflies and other sensitive species on the 200-acre property west of the Bacara Resort & Spa.
They still want to create an 18-hole golf course, the developers say, but they would move the proposed clubhouse and reduce the number of paved parking spaces to avoid patches of the rare southern tarplant. They would also offer to provide public access to a popular surfing spot along the western edge of the property.
Meanwhile, Dos Pueblos Associates and Makar are suing the commission, alleging that they have been illegally deprived of any reasonable use of their land. In the lawsuit, filed last month in Santa Barbara Superior Court, they seek damages of more than $35 million.
Steven Kaufmann, a Golf Links attorney, said last week he could not comment on the proposal because of the pending litigation.
The golf course property, historically farmland and pasture, lies within a 76-mile-long section of the coast, from Coal Oil Point to Point Sal, that is under study for inclusion into the national park system.
On Wednesday, the Sierra Club plans to take a busload of golf course opponents to the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Luis Obispo to ask the commission not to reconsider its 10-0 vote, taken last Dec. 11, against the Golf Links project. Unless the developers agree to move the 16th, 17th and 18th fairways off the edge of the ocean bluffs, the project is unacceptable, these critics say. Two pairs of kites, a species that has virtually disappeared from Santa Barbara County, were observed nesting there in the spring of 2002.
"They think that by making a few concessions, they're somehow going to resurrect the project; and they've completely missed the boat on the pivotal issue, which is protecting the white-tailed kites," said Mark Massara, a spokesman for the Sierra Club in San Francisco. "They've got no case."
In a recent report, the commission staff recommends that the developers' request for reconsideration be denied. The staff says that Dos Pueblos Associates and Makar were encouraged last year to reduce the size of their project, but they refused. In particular, the staff said, the developers declined to relocate the three fairways because the bluff edge provides the spectacular views that would set apart a championship course from a more mundane course.
"Without question, there is no way this will work," Bill Coore, the golf course designer, told the commission in December. "I know it is very, very difficult to understand for those who are not versed in golf and golf architecture. It must seem that holes are merely like tiles on the floor, that you can pick them up and move them around in any fashion. It really isn't the case."
The commission staff contends there is no question of an illegal "taking" because the developers could build at least three homes on the property.
"Considering the spectacular setting of the subject lands, the three residences, minimum, that the applicants could construct could be of estate ranchette stature," the report states. "Such estates are highly coveted on the Gaviota coast, and therefore would likely be of high real estate market value."
Dos Pueblos Golf Links has gone through several reversals of fortune since it was approved by the county in 1993. The Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit environmentalist group, appealed to the commission in 1994 to overturn the county's decision but did not prevail. Surfrider then sued the developers and lost again. The former property owner, Arco Oil and Gas Co., spent $11 million removing an unsightly oil and gas operation to make way for the golf course.
The golf course project began to falter in 1999, when three red-legged frogs, a threatened species, were discovered in a creek on the property. Monarch butterflies, a sensitive species numbered there at about 130 during 1990, returned in the thousands in 2000 to roost in the eucalyptus trees during the winter months. Next, the kites were sighted; one of the two nests produced five fledglings.
In a recent letter to the commission, Mr. Kaufmann contends that the agency was misinformed about the numbers of monarchs and tarplants on the golf course property. He said his clients were willing to create "substantial new areas" of native grasslands where the kites could forage for food. Even the experts agree the birds may eventually abandon the place, Mr. Kaufmann said.
Finally, he said, there is no drinking water on the property to build homes.
Mr. Massara said the developers should start negotiating with a conservationist land trust to sell their land.
"A golf course is neither appropriate nor desirable at that location," he said. "There's no new information, no new arguments, no errors of fact. They're throwing everything at the wall, including the kitchen sink, hoping that something is going to stick. We want this thing over with."