Developers of 2 New Golf Courses Get Start Time From Simi Valley

SIMI VALLEY — With three golf courses packed inside its city limits, Simi Valley is already rich with links.

Yet the City Council agreed Monday night to squeeze in two new world-class courses on the theory that people will come to golf and perhaps stay to shop, eat or even settle in Simi Valley.

The council unanimously approved a development agreement that allows construction of two public courses in Simi Valley’s northern hills.

The measure met little opposition from the council or the community. No one spoke against it.

“I think this will be a really great improvement to our city,” said Councilman Bill Davis, an inveterate golfer. “We have a golf course now that’s overcrowded seven days a week. I’m very anxious [to see] something that we can play golf on in 12 to 14 months.”

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said she is glad the Big Sky project, just off the Ronald Reagan Freeway, will present a view “of open space and greenery” to people driving through.

The Big Sky Country Club Inc. plans to build the golf complex on part of a 1,770-acre site of the otherwise stalled Whiteface development.

Simi Valley already boasts a private course at Wood Ranch and the public Sinaloa and Simi Hills golf courses.

But the Big Sky links would be designed by noted golf course architect Pete Dye. And developers hope to generate 50,000 to 100,000 rounds per year--particularly among hard-core golf enthusiasts and golf-loving executives.

Dye designed the PGA West course near Palm Springs, the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island in South Carolina, the Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, and a course in Moreno Valley, among others.

The developers had hoped to build the Simi Valley courses after streets and utilities were laid and construction begun on 400 custom homes at the Whiteface property.

The 2,686-acre Whiteface parcel, at the northern end of Tapo Canyon Road, is one of the largest undeveloped chunks of land left in the Simi Valley area and was slated to become one of the city’s biggest subdivisions.

But the real estate market softened in the 1990s, and Big Sky put the houses on hold in late 1995. The developers returned to the council in January 1996 with a request for a change that would allow them to build the golf courses first as a draw for house buyers.

The council agreed, and on Monday gave the go-ahead for the golf complex.

The Big Sky complex would include two regulation-size public golf courses, one in Tapo Canyon and the other in Dry Canyon. The plan also calls for a clubhouse with driving range, cart storage, food service and pro shop.

Big Sky agreed to let the city use one course twice a year for fund-raising tournaments staged by the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Foundation, the Simi Valley Police Foundation or any other law enforcement cause chosen by the City Council.