SAN JOSE
– In golfing terms, CordeValle birdied on the 18th to beat Santa
Clara County by a stroke.
After hours of negotiations, county planning commissioners
unanimously agreed on Thursday that the private golf club could
continue to restrict phone-in golf reservations from outside its
membership
– but not without conditions.
SAN JOSE – In golfing terms, CordeValle birdied on the 18th to beat Santa Clara County by a stroke.
After hours of negotiations, county planning commissioners unanimously agreed on Thursday that the private golf club could continue to restrict phone-in golf reservations from outside its membership – but not without conditions.
Commissioner Ed Voss called it “negotiating an exchange of public benefit.” Commissioners agreed to drop a three-day-a-week public-access requirement in favor of CordeValle’s proposal: a youth golf program and a series of charity golf tournaments open to anyone. The deal is, the county gets control of the foundation’s board.
What hasn’t changed is that 10 percent of CordeValle’s available annual tee times must be reserved for members of the paying public – not including members, overnight guests of the CordeValle Lodge and friends of members or guests.
What has changed is that this 10 percent can now include local high school and college golf programs funded by the proposed CordeValle Youth Golf Foundation and a series of four charity tournaments to raise money for this foundation – not just phone-in reservations.
Not that most of the golfing public could afford CordeValle’s $275 greens fee. Only 34 people who weren’t members, lodge guests or friends of members or guests played in the last year.
Still, the fact remained that public access had been a keystone of the course’s use permit since it opened in 1996 as the Lion’s Gate Golf Club. The club’s ownership, name and business plan changed in 1998, and CordeValle began restricting play to all but its members and lodge guests.
This caused a degree of public outcry, most notably from a San Jose Mercury News sports columnist. In reaction, the Planning Commission a year ago required CordeValle to allow phone-in golf reservations from the paying public on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with 72 hours’ notice, at whatever price the club decided to set. General Manager Joe Root said this plan is not working.
“We believe it will put us out of business,” Root told planning commissioners, adding that he expects CordeValle members and/or guests will sue the resort if the phone-in reservations continue.
“A mandatory requirement for public play, in a phone-in sense, is something we just can’t deal with,” Jennifer Hernandez, CordeValle’s legal counsel, told the planning commission. “We absolutely need to reserve rounds for lodge guests, whether they use them or not.”
Many of the planning commissioners were reluctant to approve CordeValle’s plan. Chairman Sequoia Hall, in particular, criticized club officials for taking the county’s prior rulings lightly.
“When we said these are the conditions of use, we were not listened to,” Hall said. “I disagree highly with CordeValle’s assertion that (the) public play (requirement) was unclear. I think they knew what it was and didn’t comply.”
In the end, though, commissioners agreed that “public play” would be better served with hundreds of public golfers participating in tournaments – and perhaps hundreds more in the foundation’s youth programs – than with current pace of phone-in reservations. Each tournament would allow about 120 participants, with discounted $140 greens fees and entry on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“I have no doubt those tournaments will sell out,” Voss said. “That ($140) is the price to play a premium golf course in the valley, whereas the $275 is an extremely high price.”
CordeValle had originally proposed three tournaments a year but, at Voss’s request, agreed to add a fourth.
The final sticking point was control of the foundation’s board of directors. CordeValle had wanted to appoint four of the board’s seven members, with one picked by the county Board of Supervisors, one by the Planning Commission and one from outside – likely a San Martin resident. In the end, though, the Planning Commission insisted that the Board of Supervisors pick four and CordeValle one.
While CordeValle officials were visibly disappointed by this turn of events, Root said after the meeting that he felt the issue could be worked out without the resort appealing the ruling. The bottom line, Root said, is that CordeValle wants to see the bulk of the funds go directly to local kids’ golf programs and not to administrative fees.
“As long as that happens, we’re happy,” Root said.
Planning commissioners had said the same, in fact requiring a 15 percent cap on administrative fees with foundation money.
Also at issue was CordeValle’s ongoing noncompliance with environmental mandates set by the county, but the resort had no problems with the county’s prescribed plan of action.
Many interested people spoke at the public hearing about public play at CordeValle. Members of the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee and the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance spoke in favor of the resort.
“I believe in businesses having a right to … financial viability,” Alliance President Sylvia Hamilton said.
Of the San Martin residents who spoke, most referred to CordeValle as a “good neighbor.” If current incorporation efforts succeed in San Martin, CordeValle would make up a massive portion of the new city’s tax base.
A golf coach and physical education teacher from San Martin each testified that there is a great interest in golf among San Martin’s young people but that most can’t afford to play at present – making them excellent beneficiaries of the foundation.
The CordeValle Youth Golf Foundation would receive a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 a year: $50,000 in a direct annual donation from the resort and at least $50,000 from the charity tournaments.
If the tournaments raised less than $50,000 in a given year, CordeValle would make up the difference. Also, if youth, school, tournament and phone-in play amounted to less than 10 percent of the course’s annual rounds, CordeValle must, in the words of its proposal, “provide equivalent public benefit by making an in lieu payment of $275 per round not played to the CordeValle Youth Golf Foundation.”
