Karen Foss says her 'last hurrah' as golf course opens Karen Foss says her 'last hurrah' as golf course opens (November 11, 2005)

by Jeb Bing

It's good that Karen Foss had friends to visit in Pleasanton when she retired from her Santa Clara County job in 1995, or we might not be playing on our new Callippe Preserve golf course this weekend. Foss, along with the city's late Public Works Director Randy Lum, also an avid golfer, shared their passion for building Callippe and locking up the 511-acre site on which it sits as pristine open space for the far southwest corner of Pleasanton forever. They succeeded, but not without challenges and a few disappointments along the way. Lum, the engineer, who worked tirelessly to convince skeptical environmental agencies that the course could be built to their increasingly high standards, died three years ago before seeing his dream realized. A part of the golf course clubhouse has been dedicated to Randy Lum.

Foss joined the effort to get Callippe built in 1995, when she retired as head of the Public Services Agency for Santa Clara County, which included responsibilities for building and managing golf courses and crafting private-public partnerships in these endeavors. She had just purchased her retirement home in St. George, Utah, and had stopped by to say goodbye to several close friends she had in Pleasanton. One of them tipped off then-Mayor Ben Tarver about her credentials, and he asked her to chair a golf course committee he was forming to work with Lum and others on the project. He assured her the assignment would take no more than two years; Foss told him it might take three years, but she agreed to commute back and forth from St. George to help get the job done.

I caught up with Foss by cell phone last Tuesday as she was on what she hopes was her last 12-hour drive home to St. George, where she already has taken on several similar tasks. Of course, we know now that the Callippe project, with Lum and his successor Rob Wilson, now Public Works Director, at the helm, took 10 years to complete, with costs escalating from an early projection of $20 million to $34.5 million. That cost includes the 145-acre, 18-hole golf course, and the acquisition of another 280 acres of open space and public trails.

As chairwoman of the Callippe Golf Course Committee, Foss called on her 35 years of experience in city and county government to help Lum, and later other city officials, negotiate their way through the challenging channels of various regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Foss knew that these agencies often have a bias against golf courses because they require extensive watering and fertilization. Lum, through his research and persuasive skills, convinced them that Callippe had extraordinary controls in place that exceeded their demands and committed more than 100 acres the city would buy to protect endangered wildlife and species, including the Callippe butterflies.

Although Happy Valley property owners rejected an annexation bid by 88-83, a disappointment for Lum who had wanted all 811 acres of unincorporated Happy Valley to become part of Pleasanton, he worked with Foss and her committee and the City Council to acquire and annex the remaining 530 undeveloped acres that now include the golf course, trails and open space. As she drove on to St. George, Foss asked me to thank the hundreds of city officials and community volunteers who helped make Callippe a reality. She was especially honored to be chosen to lead the dedication ceremonies - her "last hurrah" - in a city she'll forever admire.

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