Source: North County Times (California)
Carlsbad, Calif. - The city's longtime mayor and several council members like to joke that they have grown old waiting for construction to start on the city's long-sought municipal golf course.
They are not the only ones.
Some of the avid golfers appointed to a citizen's committee on the golf course more than a decade ago now use canes and walkers to get around.
"We've even had a couple of them that died," said member Pat Krimian, 76, who joined the committee back when it was established some 15 years ago. "I think we're the longest (committee) in history."
The wait is almost over -- the city started work Monday on the 18-hole, championship course. Surveyors expect to spend several weeks at the nearly 400-acre site along the north side of Palomar Airport Road. After they are done sticking stakes in the ground, the fencing arrives. The main part of the construction work will begin next fall and work should be done by early 2007, city officials said.
Nearly every one of the permits is in hand, except for the final paperwork associated with the state coastal development permit, city Municipal Projects Manager John Cahill said Monday.
"We anticipate that ... will be issued shortly," he added.
What was once a $ 7 million project has grown to $ 30 million when all the redesigns, consultant payments and time spent before the Coastal Commission are factored in, city officials have said. They thought they were done with the design work four years ago, then learned that the Coastal Commission wanted to review it.
After an extensive redesign, the Coastal Commission approved the project in 2003, subject to a few more paperwork items and the approval of the citywide habitat management plan, which won the endorsement of state and federal wildlife officials last month.
After the Christmas holiday, the golf course site will start to look like a construction zone.
"Probably in January, you'll begin to see some mowing or topping of the areas to be developed," Cahill said.
Come March, there will be a long dry spell when nothing happens but birds breeding. Under federal requirements, all construction work must cease from March to September to accommodate the nesting period of the endangered Southern California gnatcatcher -- a small song bird that lives in coastal brush habitat.
In September, the "real work" -- the grading, landscaping and structure-building portion -- will begin, Cahill said.
The first phase of work -- the December to March portion done by Romero Construction of Escondido -- is estimated to cost $ 485,000. The second portion hasn't gone out to bid yet.
The project is being financed by $ 15 million worth of tax-exempt bonds and a $ 15 million city loan. Plans call for the debt to be paid by revenue from the course in the years to come. The city has been soliciting proposals from companies who wish to manage the course and expects to have a management firm selected early next year, Cahill said.
To use the course, city residents will pay green fees of $ 45 on Mondays through Thursdays. They will pay $ 50 on Fridays and $ 60 on weekends. Nonresidents will pay $ 75 on Mondays through Thursdays, $ 85 on Fridays and $ 105 on weekends.
The golf cart rental rate is included in the green fees.
Krimian can't wait to see the survey stakes in place.
"Our (course) is going to be fabulous," she said, adding that every city, particularly one like Carlsbad that is considered a golfer's paradise, ought to have a municipal golf course.
It has been several years since Krimian had back surgery and began using a walker, but one way or another she is going to get out on the new course -- even if it is just to ride around in the cart, she said.
As she waits for construction to end, she has one fervent wish: "I just don't want anyone else on the committee to die (before the course opens)."