City Aims to Define the Green in Greenbelt

THOUSAND OAKS — Just because a driving range is carpeted in lush, green grass doesn’t mean it belongs in a greenbelt, at least not according to city officials.

On Tuesday the Thousand Oaks City Council will discuss formally opposing two plans to build driving ranges in the Tierra Rejada Valley greenbelt, the wide open, mostly undeveloped farmland that separates the cities of Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

But the council’s opposition may end up just a formality. Council members are essentially powerless to stop construction of the driving ranges for two reasons. The greenbelt is county land, controlled by the Board of Supervisors. And a driving range is considered acceptable within the greenbelt agreement.

“I don’t think it ought to be,” Mayor Andy Fox said. “I don’t think that is what anybody would envision as a greenbelt.”

The Tierra Rejada Valley greenbelt was formed to preserve a buffer zone between the east county’s three cities. In 1983 officials from Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley signed a two-page “gentleman’s agreement” to protect the land and preserve the rural character of the area. Moorpark signed off on the agreement a year later. Since then, county planners have solicited input on possible projects from each city.

The agreement “was a recognition that in this county we would like to avoid what has happened in other parts of Southern California where urban sprawl was created by not having limits to development,” City Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said.

Two applicants have asked the county for permits, each to build a driving range within or near the greenbelt. Ralph Mahan hopes to build a 30-tee range and four-hole practice area on 117 acres at the northeast intersection of Tierra Rejada Road and the Moorpark Freeway, just outside the greenbelt. Mahan’s driving range would include a 47-space parking lot.

A second applicant, Tom Barger Golf Centers, wants to build a 75-tee driving range on a 20-acre site just across Tierra Rejada Road, within the designated greenbelt zone. The parking lot would hold 100 cars.

Neither project is compatible with the goals of the greenbelt, council members said. Fox said both would require extensive grading as well as laying asphalt.

For the driving ranges to show a profit, they have to be open some evenings. Lights powerful enough to illuminate the driving ranges would detract from the rural atmosphere of the greenbelt, Zukowski said.

Even though some might look at driving ranges as far less damaging than something like a strip mall, Zukowski said, it is important that the three cities make sure smaller projects like these don’t eat away at the 2,200 acres that have been set aside.

“Every chunk is a further erosion of what the intent was in establishing a greenbelt,” she said.

Chipping away at the greenbelt is a particularly sensitive issue right now. Earlier this month, the county supervisors agreed to allow six luxury homes to be built on a 60-acre parcel within the greenbelt next to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The board made a zone change to accommodate the project, which officials in all three east county cities strongly opposed.

Softening the blow, the developers agreed to donate 220 acres on Simi Valley’s eastern edge to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The county and the cities are working now on a resolution to add that 220 acres to the greenbelt. The Simi Valley City Council has already voted unanimously to sign the resolution. The Thousand Oaks council is expected to sign off on that resolution Tuesday as well. The Moorpark council has not yet considered the issue.

In a letter to Fox, Supervisor Frank Schillo said the board “agonized” over the zone change but ultimately found that it was not inconsistent with the greenbelt agreement. Given the precedent, does anyone think a letter from the Thousand Oaks City Council might sway the board against the driving range?

“Yes, I do,” Fox said. “In my meetings with Supervisor [Judy] Mikels and Supervisor Schillo, they both agreed that there are allowable uses in a greenbelt that they would like to see changed. There was a strong indication on the part of the supervisors that they want to maintain the greenbelt too.”

Zukowski is not so sure, saying the current Board of Supervisors is more developer-friendly than past boards.

“I can’t predict,” she said. “I just know that it is a different Board of Supervisors than it was in the past.”