A legal battle over the fate of the former Escondido Country Club golf course continues to make its way through the courts, but a workshop Thursday night is the first step in the city's plan to rezone the site, which has become a wasteland of dried grass.
Developer Stuck in the Rough bought the golf course in 2012, and then shut it down and proposed a housing development with 600 homes. The city blocked that in 2013 by adopting a citizens initiative declaring it open space.
Since then a compromise has seemed distant. At one point, the developer put chicken manure on the fairways, which created such a stink San Diego County threatened the developer with fines.
Mike Slater, president of the Escondido Country Club and Community Homeowners Organization, said a recent poll of residents drew 187 responses, and most of them want to keep at least part of the site as a golf course.
“Forty-five percent wanted the golf course back — a public golf course not a private one,” Slater said. “Another 45 percent expected some kind of development with a golf component."
Ten percent want to keep the area as open space, but everybody wants the clubhouse reopened, Slater said.
“Because that was the center, people would go down there in their golf carts and have lunch," he said. "That was sort of the gathering place of the community.”
Dick Daniels, a consultant to the developer, said he plans to be at the workshop as an observer. Daniels said the developer presented a plan for 270 homes to Slater's organization in December but cannot propose it to the city because the land is designated as open space.
Escondido Mayor Sam Abed has seen the proposal but refuses to consider it unless the developer agrees to drop his lawsuit.
Barbara Rednitz, Escondido’s director of community development, said city staff will take public comments into consideration when making a recommendation on rezoning. That will go to the Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council for approval.
Although the City Council normally decides on zoning within two years of changing the designation of land in the general plan, it could be longer in this case, Rednitz said. That’s because the city halted the rezoning process when the developer filed Proposition H, a ballot initiative that would have allowed more development on the site. It failed in November.
While the city debates the rezoning, a judge is considering whether the city’s decision to declare the land open space was illegal in the first place. Attorneys for the developer, Michael Schlesinger of Stuck in the Rough, argue that declaring the course open space was inconsistent with the city’s general plan.
Superior Court Judge Earl Maas III will rule on that next week.
Thursday's workshop begins at 6 p.m. in the Escondido City Council Chambers at 201 N. Broadway.
