Source: Fresno Bee (California)
Plans for a luxury golf course development in long-suffering west Fresno are moving ahead as the City Council prepares for a Dec. 21 vote on rezoning 461 acres for the project.
The Running Horse partnership already has won endorsement from the city Planning Commission for its rezoning, which would set the stage for construction of 780 homes on an 18-hole golf course stretched over 443 acres bounded by Whites Bridge, Marks, Hughes and Church avenues.
The commission also recommended approval of apartment zoning for 18 acres on the southeast corner of Hughes and Kearney Boulevard. Developer Tom O'Meara, who first proposed the project in 2002, said he hopes to begin taking deposits for golf course homes in January, assuming future city votes occur on schedule.
Construction is under way on 42 new homes previously approved as part of a 58-lot development on the northwest corner of Kearney and Marks, opposite what will be the golf course's first hole.
"I would say that in April of next year we'll have the first people move in," O'Meara said.
Spurred by the recent extension of Freeway 180 into the area, the Running Horse project would bring $400,000 to $600,000 homes to the fringe of what has long been one of Fresno's most economically depressed areas. The golf course and home sites would wrap around the proposed California Veterans Home on the southeast corner of California and Marks avenue, and a clubhouse on the southeast corner of Kearney and Marks.
O'Meara initially asked the city to help pay for the project's golf course, but dropped that idea last spring after a city consultant reported that golf course revenues were not likely to provide enough income to make payments on the necessary bond issue.
With city money no longer potentially at stake, the rezoning and associated environmental report and general plan amendment easily won Planning Commission approval this week. "There was no opposition at all, only support," city Development Director Nick Yovino said. "The commission unanimously approved it."
Still pending, besides the City Council's scheduled rezoning vote, are the Planning Commission's consideration of a subdivision map and land-use permit for the golf course. The proposed map shows 780 homes on lots ranging in size from 7,500 to more than 10,000 square feet, most with back yards opening onto the golf course.
The 18 acres to the east could accommodate as many as 270 apartments, but O'Meara said he and his partners probably will not build anything there that would have typical apartment complex densities. "We may do more houses --that's one option," he said.
