Golfers debated the mayor’s proposed five-year plan for golf courses for about three hours May 17 before the Natural Resources & Culture Committee (NRCC) voted 4-0 to forward the matter to the full City Council for approval.
The committee voted to support a 70-percent residents/30-percent non-residents method of charging fees and to not include anything about the construction of the controversial clubhouse as part of the plan that goes before the City Council.
“It’s going to have to go to the City Council,” NRC Chairwoman Donna Frye said.
Most of the morning hearing consisted of testimony from the public, but this left little time for committee members to craft a motion before the noon recess. At 11:59 a.m., District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer made the motion to forward the plan to the City Council without a specific recommendation.
Frye and council members Toni Atkins and Ben Hueso voted for Faulconer’s motion. Frye told the crowd the issue “may or may not come back” to the NRCC to work out other details in the thick plan issued by Mayor Jerry Sanders.
“It was a productive meeting. We got a lot accomplished,” Frye said afterward, citing the support for the 70/30 split and dropping the controversial clubhouse from the plan.
Frye repeatedly told the crowd that if everyone spoke, the committee members would only have a few minutes to craft a motion. Some gave their time to other speakers, including former Councilman Michael Zucchet, who spoke in his new job as vice president of development for J. Peter Block companies, a local developer for residential housing.
Zucchet told the crowd to “please bring the sides together and put the politics behind.”
Sanders issued a memo about his plan and many copies were available to read at the meeting. He agreed with Zucchet and others that the Torrey Pines clubhouse construction be removed from his plan. Sanders described the clubhouse as “unfunded … to consider at a much later date.”
Many in the audience displayed signs for the 70/30 split, senior discount, low resident fees, and keeping other things as they are. Others expressed annoyance at the practice of being charged the higher weekend rate for Friday golf, and many urged that Friday fees be the same as other weekdays.
Steve Roberts, a vice president of the Torrey Pines Men’s Club, said he favored the 70/30 split and added that “a clubhouse is a wish, but not a need.”