Forget fall tee-time: Golf course delayed until spring Forget fall tee-time: Golf course delayed until spring (May 28, 2004)

City to throw party in September for public to tour Callippe Preserve
by Jeb Bing

The opening of Pleasanton's new $40 million municipal golf course has been pushed back to next May, but that won't stop the city from doing what it's known to do best - throw a party.

Rob Wilson, the city's Director of Public Works who has charge of the golf course construction project, said that he'll host a public party in September when the Callippe Preserve Golf Course clubhouse is scheduled to be completed.

"Everyone can ride in golf carts along the paved cartways to see the course," Wilson said. "By then, the seeding that will start soon will be showing enough green to make it look and feel like a golf course."

Wilson said earlier projections had set the opening day at sometime this fall, but a slowdown in seeding operations caused the delay. The contract with Ferma Corp. called for the course to be completed next April, so with a May opening now likely, there won't be any construction delay penalties.

All of the infrastructure work, including roadways, buildings and sprinkling systems, will be completed by year's end, Wilson added. That will give residents along Alisal Street, who have complained about heavy equipment on their only through-street and fear the onslaught of heavy golf course traffic when it opens, a few months of respite. Their homeowners' association, the Alisal Improvement Club, is appealing a Superior Court decision that did not accept their demand for a bypass road to be constructed by the time the course opened. With no movement on a housing development project needed on adjacent ranchland to help pay the cost of a bypass, it's unlike the course opening delay will make much difference.

The delayed opening date will affect the entire 343-acre Callippe Preserve, including the 145-acre golf course and another 173 acres of equestrian, walking and hiking trails around it.

"Until we determine that the project has been completed to our satisfaction, we don't want the public using any part of the site," Wilson said.

The 18-hole public golf course, which was first proposed in the late 1980s, started as a $20 million project. By opening day, costs are expected to reach close to $40 million, with bonds and general fund payments to be repaid by golfing fees. A specific fee structure has yet to be announced.

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