Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Chalk Mountain, the county's 27-year-old golf course in Atascadero, is in such bad shape that it is losing golfers to other courses and may be on the road to closure, according to a new report.
The county may have to get out of the golf course business altogether because of declining use and deteriorating income, warns the grim report prepared for the Board of Supervisors.
The General Services Department are asking for a one-time, $350,000 infusion of cash to fix problems at Chalk Mountain. But in doing so, they have raised a major policy question: Should the county use taxpayers' money to subsidize golf? Until now, the courses have paid for themselves.
Depending on how the supervisors answer that question, they could end up closing one or more of their three courses, which also include Dairy Creek and Morro Bay Golf Course.
In Chalk Mountain's heyday, the early to mid-1990s, approximately 80,000 golfers a year played a round. Today that number has slipped below 40,000.
Article:
County-run course low on green, The Tribune
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast GolfLabels: Chalk Mountain, Golf Courses
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The tiny hamlet of Santa Margarita could balloon into a new city that includes three places of worship, private golf courses, hundreds of homes, nine wineries, galleries, shops, a livestock yard and many other amenities, under a plan to be unveiled Thursday night in Santa Margarita.
The county planning department and developer Santa Margarita Ranch LLC will release an environmental impact report delineating the possibilities for the land at a public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the community room on I Street.
The EIR also will set forth potential problems, environmental and otherwise, with the putative development.
The report comes in two parts. The first assesses the impact of a proposed agricultural cluster subdivision on property southeast of town. The developer proposes 111 sites, to be built in three phases, and completed in 2010.
In a cluster subdivision, the homes are clustered in order that agriculture can take place on the surrounding land.
The second, and larger proposal examines what might become of the 14,000-acre Santa Margarita Ranch, which surrounds the current town.
Tags:
San Luis Obispo Central Coast Golf WineLabels: Central Coast Wine, Golf Courses, Santa Margarita