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Saturday, June 14, 2008 O.C. Register
June 14: Great Park promises made to be broken
Letters to the editor for Saturday, June 14
Golf course was profitable
To your credit The Orange County Register has written extensively about
the Great Park and, especially, the lack of accomplishments after six years.
The front-page article, "Is that all there is"? in Sunday's paper is
particularly noteworthy and reminds me of the late, great singer Peggy Lee's
song of that title.
In that article you say that "after six years and millions of dollars
spent, an out-of-commission balloon ride is all that has been developed at
the great park." While that statement is true, there is one development –
one that predates the Great Park plan – that no one in the press talks
about.
I'm referring to the El Toro Golf Course that was closed in December 2006
and was to reopen in October 2008. We golfers were told that a new 18-hole
golf course was to be created, that the former Marine Corps course was to be
reconstructed, and both would be open to the public along with an expansive
new clubhouse in about 18 months.
But the question that the many golfers who played El Toro over the years
have is this:
Why would the Irvine government and the Great Park Board, allow the
Lennar Corporation to close a perfectly good revenue-producing asset, on the
premise that they would proceed at once to execute their grand plan? Why was
the El Toro Golf Course allowed to be closed without a date certain from
Lennar as to exactly when they would begin to build the new venue?
As we have now learned, the bursting of the housing bubble has caused
Lennar to put their plans on hold for an indefinite period of time.
And think of the folks who lost their jobs, and the golfers who lost a
popular golf course, because of the short-sighted actions by Lennar and the
people who are supposed to be watching out for our interests.
Is that all there is?
–Joe Phelps of Irvine
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Thursday, May 8, 2008
Hold on: El Toro course won't be open this summer
By CURTIS ZUPKE The Orange County Register
Golfers who hoped the former El Toro Marine Base Golf
Course would be open this summer will have to find tee times elsewhere. A
Lennar Corp. spokeswoman confirmed that the re-opening of the Irvine
course has been pushed back because of a shift in development priorities.
Lennar originally planned to re-open the course this
summer as part of the Great Park project. However, the first phase now
will occur with the project's "Life Long Learning District," which is
intended for educational, retail and office uses, said Carol Wold, vice
president of community affairs for Lennar.
Wold said Lennar is working with the city on a timetable
for re-opening the course, a re-configuration of the original 18-hole
layout. "Part of what will dictate that timing is work we are jointly
undertaking to re-design the golf course to accommodate the wildlife
corridor that runs through it," Wold wrote in an e-mail.
"We are working to reconfigure some of the holes/or modify
the design of the wildlife corridor to create the best design possible."
Original plans called for a par-72 course that stretched more than 7,000
yards from the back tees. Tee boxes and dogleg markers were in place
before development was delayed.
When the course eventually re-opens, a temporary clubhouse
will be erected while a new one is built. El Toro Golf Course closed in
December 2006, approximately 18 months after Lennar and Irvine officials
signed a deal to construct one the nation's largest public parks.
The project has been set back largely because of the
housing crisis that has reportedly forced Lennar to re-think its
development amid funding issues. It is not known if Lennar will pursue
original plans for a 45-hole facility. Wold said discussions are
"ongoing."
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