SAN MARTIN
– A tony golf resort west of San Martin could face more changes
to its operations after county officials were left unsatisfied with
the results of recent efforts to boost the amount of public play
there.
SAN MARTIN – A tony golf resort west of San Martin could face more changes to its operations after county officials were left unsatisfied with the results of recent efforts to boost the amount of public play there.
The county’s Planning Commission has scheduled another so-called “revocation, modification or reaffirmation” hearing in May, when it will reopen use permits and possibly modify policies at the $80 million resort off Highland Avenue in the picturesque Hayes Valley.
The new hearing comes after commissioners were less than satisfied with the results of a six-month pilot program meant to increase general phone-in access by golfers. While course officials reportedly want to continue the program, commissioners apparently have something different in mind.
“The reason we’re in this to begin with is in the past they weren’t providing phone-in public play,” said Commissioner Sequoia Hall. “Obviously they’ve made some more proposals, but the commission wasn’t satisfied and wanted to see more.”
County officials required the course to make 60 percent of its annual rounds available for public play when they granted use permits for the course back in 1996.
Course officials said they had been meeting – if not exceeding – that requirement through golfers who make room reservations, guests of members, charity tournaments and practices for high-school and college student teams.
But opponents maintained the course’s policy should include nonmembers, and argued that the price for them to play – $500 or more after renting the required room at the resort’s lodge – were too high to support the spirit of public use. In a permit hearing last year, the county allowed a six-month pilot program suggested by CordeValle to boost public rounds. The course committed to accept phone-in reservations no more than 72 hours in advance for public play Monday through Wednesday and also perform more advertising to the public through avenues such as golf magazines and its Internet site.
The course also changed its policy to accommodate the phone-in rounds at $275 each plus cart and caddy – without having to book a room.
Course officials reported back at a March 6 hearing that they received 84 calls regarding phone-in public play. Twenty-seven made requests for tee times, and 10 were within the course’s guidelines and were accommodated – resulting in 19 new rounds. The other 17 callers were offered times but did not accept them, course officials said.
Commissioners reportedly weren’t too impressed with the pilot program’s results.
“I think it’s fair to say that the pilot program did not meet anyone’s expectations,” said Rachael Gibson, a land-use aide to District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage that attends the hearings. “We heard loud and clear that they were really upset with the outcome of the program and clearly felt more had to be done.”
What exactly constitutes “public play” is still a key topic that will likely arise at the next hearing. Commissioners have asked county planners to research that question in greater detail and return with more information.
For example, county planners have said in staff reports that guests of members should not count as public play.
“I think the use permit was fairly clear, and obviously we’re having a difference of opinion over what public play is,” Hall said. The course “offered some definitions, and I don’t think they’ve satisfied the commission.”
CordeValle General Manager Joe Root was in meetings and unavailable for an interview Friday. Land-use attorney Barton Hechtman, who has represented the course at past hearings, did not return a telephone call.
“We’re working with county staff and commissioners to resolve the issue positively,” Root said in a brief telephone message Friday. “We’re working very hard on that.”
In the past, Root has said the whole expressed concept of the course and resort – the result of an $80 million investment – was to provide a business-oriented, high-quality facility that differs from a typical municipal course.
Planning commissioners will have wide powers, ranging from the ability to ask for more advertising or more flexibility in tee time availability to revoking the course’s operating permit in its entirety.
“The commission is still figuring out what it wants to do. It’s not anything it goes into lightly,” Hall said.
So far Hall said indications have not suggested the commission is immediately interested in altering the course’s greens fees.
“Who knows where it will end up, but so far it hasn’t gone in that direction,” he said.
And there’s another option: the course could try to change the definition of its facility to a private one.
Such a move would require reopening the permit, another round of commission hearings – with public comment – and possibly a new environmental study, officials said.
