A few members of our Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course Coalition met recently with a representative from KB Homes on their interest in potentially purchasing the RCI property for a proposed residential development.
Part of the meeting was spent discussing the expected community opposition to any application to change the city’s General Plan and zoning to allow residential development on the RCI property. Toward the end of the meeting, as part of KB Homes' due diligence they indicated that they found it unsuitable to move forward with the acquisition of the RCI property.
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Based on monitoring the title record for the Rancho San Joaquin golf course property, our RSJ golf course coalition confirms that the RSJ golf course, so far, continues to be owned by Drive Shack Inc.
A developer from 4G Ventures was in escrow to purchase RSJ golf course since about July. But agreement could not be reached for purchase. Currently there appears to be no activity on the sale of the RSJ golf course. Also, we reported earlier that Drive Shack replaced its executive staff late last year. Their new CEO is Ken May who was previously CEO of Topgolf, a direct competitor to Drive Shack. And their new CFO is David Hammarley. And we also reported this past fall that the Irvine City Council adopted a legal resolution which reaffirms the current General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course in order to protect the property from redevelopment Our coalition will continue to monitor the sale and provide an update should the status change. Questions? Contact us through our Contact Us form on our website. Our RSJ golf course coalition now confirms that negotiations has stalled between the owner, Drive Shack Inc., and the current buyer, a developer from 4G Ventures in Laguna Beach, on the sale of the Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course. Negotiations on the sale have been ongoing since approximately July but the two parties have not yet reached final agreement. Our RSJ golf course coalition have, and will continue, to closely monitor the sale and will provide an update to the Irvine and wider Orange County communities on when the sales status changes. Be sure to sign up on our email list or join our Facebook group to keep posted on future updates. Questions? Contact us on our Contact Us form. Drive Shack Shakes Up Its Executive ManagementThe corporate owner of the RSJ golf course, Drive Shack Inc., recently announced it replaced its CEO by hiring Ken May who was previously the CEO of Topgolf, a direct competitor to Drive Shack. Drive Shack also replaced its CFO with a new outside hire, David Hammarley.
Both May and Hammarley started work at Drive Shack on November 12. Sarah Watterson who was previously CEO of Drive Shack, will transition to Drive Shack's board of directors. Read the Drive Shack press release annoucing the management change At the Wednesday, September 12th Irvine City Council meeting, the City Councilmembers voted unanimously 3-0* to adopt a legally binding resolution that reaffirms the current General Plan and zoning for the Rancho San Joaquin golf course in order to protect it from redevelopment of the property. * Mayor Don Wagner, Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea and Councilmember Lynn Shott voted in favor; Councilmembers Melissa Fox and Jeff Lalloway were absent at the September 12th meeting. This City Council vote is significant. That is, the adopted legal resolution states: The City Council finds and determines that the current General Plan and Zoning Code designations for the Golf Course property accurately and appropriately reflect the values of the community and City Council’s vision and intent for the development of that property. As such, the City Council has no intent to amend the General Plan and/or Zoning Code to allow for a change in allowable uses on or development of the Golf Course property. The resolution notes that in addition to the original City Council 5-0 vote on August 28th, the Irvine Planning Commission also voted unanimously 5-0 on August 16th to reaffirm the General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course. View the adopted City Council legal resolution (pdf) Nicknamed "Gloria's Resolution" by Mayor Don Wagner at the City Council meeting, six-year-old Gloria He, who's already an avid golfer, appeared once again at the Council meeting to speak passionately in favor of protecting the RSJ golf course. Watch a video clip of Gloria's speech at the City Council meeting: Thank you Gloria! And thank you everyone for your continued support on protecting the RSJ golf course and to keep it as an open space amenity for ALL Irvine residents!
Our RSJ golf course coalition and supporters who attended the City Council meeting on August 28th were encouraged by the public comments made by our City Councilmembers and other officials, which were made in support of protecting the RSJ golf course from development. We thought you'd like to watch & read what they had to say. Councilmember Melissa Fox"...I do want to thank everyone who's come out today [to the City Council meeting]...I am so grateful that you're here today to take the time out of your lives to protect your neighborhood, and our community. Planning Commissioner Anthony Kuo"...as a matter of urgency, I worked with Greg Smith, who is our chairman of the Planning Commission, to get this on our agenda in really, really short order to show the community that we are leading by supporting them and we're leading by supporting them by reaffirming the current zoning, the current standards,and current and perhaps improved quality of life. Councilmember Jeff Lalloway"Of course I'm in favor of this {the RSJ golf course resolution]...I spoke to some of the residents before...and as I indicated then, I'm very supportive of this for two reasons: Transportation Commissioner Carrie O'Malley"...When open space such as the Rancho San Joaquin golf course is compromised we are exasperating the traffic issues in our City, not trying to alleviate them. Our open space, villages and neighborhoods were essential reasons why my husband and I chose to move to Irvine two decades ago. We have raised our two teenage children here since their births. Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea"...the reason we are reaffirming the General Plan and making it very clear that our intent is not to rezone this [golf course] property for any kind of entitlement. Councilmember Lynn Shott"...I have to come on the side of the residents on this one, and I'll tell you why. The reason that I will vote in favor of the motion -- in the face of being a fierce private property rights advocate -- is on balancing two sets of private property and I'm looking at trying to balance them on the way out, which is: Which does the greatest harm? Which does the greatest good? Mayor Don Wagner"Some of the [Cushman & Wakefield] sales material which was what first got our attention when this was brought to us by community members, stating things like the Council '...is examining other possible land use designations, which creates an opportunity to create value through further densification of [this] Site.' Note: View the Cushman & Wakefield sales brochure on the RSJ golf course. Also see Why Is It For Sale? for more information. Thanks to your support, at last night's City Council meeting, Councilmembers voted unanimously 5-0 to direct City staff come back with a legal resolution to reaffirm the existing General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course.
This is in addition to last week's Planning Commission unanimous 5-0 vote to also uphold the current General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course. Once this legal resolution is passed by City Council at their next meeting on September 12th, it will mean that if a developer submits an application to change the General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course to allow new development on the property, the City will deny the application. We thank Mayor Don Wagner and Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea for including tonight's agenda item to discuss the RSJ golf course. We also thank Planning Commissioner Anthony Kuo and Transportation Commissioner Carrie O'Malley for speaking in favor of the resolution to uphold the General Plan and zoning for the RSJ golf course. And we would like to thank all of the City Councilmembers for their support on protecting and preserving the RSJ golf course for all the Irvine residents:
And lastly, we thank ALL of our supporters for staying very late (past 10pm!) and attending and speaking at tonight's City Council meeting! We couldn't have done this without all of you!! More news and updates to come tomorrow! Make sure you've signed up on our email list to get the latest news on the RSJ golf course! This past Friday, our coalition received a copy of a letter dated August 16th which was written by Ronald S. Cortez, CFO and Vice Chancellor of UCI's Division of Finance and Administration. The letter was forwarded to us by P. Alberto Sandoval, UCI Senior Director of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs. The letter is addressed to Mo Honarkar who is the potential buyer of the Rancho San Joaquin golf course, and who has proposed to build UCI student housing on the golf course property at University and Harvard. Read the letter from UCI In the letter Vice Chancellor Cortez states the following to Mr. Honarkar: "...As we discussed, UCI has many student housing projects in various stages of development, and we are positioned to accommodate the on-campus housing needs of our students. As such, we cannot partner with you or assist you in your development plans at this time." * Vice Chancellor Cortez continues on and states: "As we indicated previously, affordable housing for students in our community remains a priority. We remain supportive of affordable student housing projects; however, we are not in a position to endorse external housing projects." * In addition, Mr. Sandoval who forwarded Vice Chancellor Cortez's letter to us, stated in an email to us: "Thank you for your interest in the future of San Joaquin Golf Course and how it relates to UCI. As a result of your email, I investigated UCI’s position on the project. I can confirm that the university is not participating in the redevelopment of the golf course and is not endorsing the developer’s plans for student housing. The attached letter [from Vice Chancellor Cortez] makes our intentions clear." * * Bold text added for emphasis We believe Vice Chancellor Cortez makes clear that UCI has no interest in cooperating with Mr. Honarkar on his proposal to build "external" student housing on the RSJ golf course property. Coupled with the Planning Commission's 5-0 vote on August 16th to reaffirm the General Plan and current zoning for the RSJ golf course, we hope this letter from UCI gives comfort to our Irvine community that UCI has no interest in student housing to be built on the golf course. Last night the Irvine Planning Commission held a Special Meeting immediately following their regular, twice-monthly meeting to discuss an emergency agenda item regarding the Rancho San Joaquin golf course. The Planning Commission proposed a resolution to uphold the City's General Plan with no changes to be considered for the RSJ golf course. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the resolution.
This decision means that if a General Plan amendment application was submitted to the Planning Commission by a developer to change the zoning of the RSJ golf course to allow additional development on the golf course property, it will be denied by the Planning Commission. Here's what one of our Irvine residents observed during the meeting: "The Irvine Planning Commission met last night in a special meeting to address the looming issue about the possible sale of the golf course to Mo Honarkar. About 100 pumped-up residents with signs packed the meeting room and spilled out into the halls. After two hours of public comment (with dozens more waiting to comment, including me) the Chairman [Greg Smith] paused the meeting and told the crowd that he'd allow all comments to be heard but given that it was now 9:45 pm perhaps everyone would rather hear 'action' than additional comments. He hinted that the commissioners had heard enough and would like to move on to discussion and a vote. We applauded with a 'go-ahead.' "They discussed for 10 minutes, then voted at 9:55 pm. It was a resounding 5-0 in favor of a motion proposed by Commissioner Anthony Kuo that said they would not consider any request for a zoning change of the golf course property. It means that any such application would die at their level. "The Commissioners got a standing ovation. The Chairman said in all his years in City government he had never been applauded like that by attendees of a public meeting. His response to us was, 'This happened because you were organized, reasonable and of one voice.'" Our RSJ Golf Course Coalition thanks Planning Commissioner Anthony Kuo for placing this item on the agenda. We also thank Chair Greg Smith for calling the special meeting. And, we thank ALL of the Planning Commissioners who voted to affirm the continued designation under the General Plan of the current zoning for the RSJ Golf Course site:
This same agenda item to uphold the General Plan will be on the City Council meeting agenda which will be held on Tuesday, August 28th. We ask for everyone's support to attend and/or speak at this next City Council meeting. Be sure to add yourself to our email list on the website's main page so that you can receive details on attending the August 28th meeting. The Rancho San Joaquin golf course is part of a contiguous wildlife corridor for a variety of migratory birds and wildlife. Because of this, it's one of the best birding locations in Southern California. Over 282 bird species, including 170 regularly-occurring species have been observed in this area. View just some of the 282 bird species spotted on the RSJ golf course by one of our Irvine residents who lives in Rancho San Joaquin. The photos of these beautiful birds were all taken at the RSJ golf course.
One of our Irvine residents who attended our Sunday, August 12th community meeting about the RSJ golf course, wrote to us and sent this photo he took that evening by the golf course.
"...I took this photo on my way home from this evening’s meeting, which shows a flock of Canadian geese on a twilight flight above the the golf course while the Crescent moon shines above." |
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Coalition To Protect Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course • P.O. Box 5475, Irvine, CA 92616 protectrsjgolfcourse@gmail.com • Tel 949-237-2807 Copyright © 2024 Coalition To Protect Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course. All rights reserved. |