About PLOS | Home | Calendar of Events | Pictures and Maps | More Info | Letter Writing

HOW THE GOLF COURSE WAS STOPPED

After over 15 years of trying unsuccessfully to get the Palos Colorados development with a golf course approved, the property owner decided to replace Richland Development Corp., the developer who handled the project all those years, with someone new: Richfield Investments of Houston TX. On March 15, Richfield submitted a new application to the Town of Moraga from which the golf course has been eliminated entirely.

WHY DID THEY TAKE IT OUT?

Richfield’s withdrawal of the golf course is surely in response to repeated statements by the state and federal permitting agencies (US Army Corps, US EPA, Regional Water Quality Control Board, CA Fish and Game) that the earlier proposal did not comply with regulations protecting water quality and wildlife.

The close scrutiny that these agencies focused on Palos Colorados and the consequential elimination of the golf course are direct results of public participation in the process: the hundreds of letters written, the packed Army Corps hearing in May 2004, and the vast amount of legal and expert evidence Preserve Lamorinda Open Space submitted to these agencies bringing the project’s environmental impacts to light.

HOW HAVE THE PROJECT IMPACTS CHANGED?

This is a major improvement. Elimination of the golf course preserves an additional 100+ acres of wildlife habitat by preventing them from being bulldozed and converted to turf and golf facilities. This means that over 80% of the site can be preserved as open space. Without the golf course, daily car trips from the project are cut by 25-30%, and the grading volume and grading area go down by more than half. Gone too is the need for the high concentrations of pesticides and herbicides that would have been used to maintain the golf course. Under the old plan, 154 large trees would have been cut down; now that figure is at about 15.