After sweating out a vote on Measure G in March and continual haggling with county officials, San Juan Oaks jumped a final hurdle Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors approved its project to sell 186 lots while building a resort-hotel and two new golf courses.
After sweating out a vote on Measure G in March and continual haggling with county officials, San Juan Oaks jumped a final hurdle Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors approved its project to sell 186 lots while building a resort-hotel and two new golf courses.
Over the past year, the project at San Juan Oaks Golf Club east of San Juan Bautista has been through several close examinations by county planners and supervisors.
San Juan Oaks has considered the project for more than a decade, and it’s been on the county’s radar for the past few years.
Tuesday, the board approved the final map 4-1, which includes plans for homes that will gradually cluster along the current 18-hole golf course. Supervisor Ruth Kesler voted against it – afterward saying she believes a planned widening of Highway 156 should take place before building the development.
The approval for San Juan Oaks came with some concessions, though.
Through a series of hearings this year leading up to the final approval, supervisors got the company to fund a new fire station at or near the location; San Juan Oaks agreed to pay $1.1 million toward a station and its equipment.
And Tuesday Supervisor Pat Loe held firm on her insistence that San Juan Oaks build a second road for emergency access now – instead of putting it off several years as the company had proposed. A full-access paved road off Highway 156 will replace a dirt drive that’s mostly used by nearby farmers.
San Juan Oaks general manager Scott Fuller has emphasized throughout the process the club would accommodate the county’s requests – within reason.
“We’re really pleased we got our final approval and we can start on the project,” Fuller said Tuesday.
His current elation is a marked difference from just five months ago. Voter approval of the heated growth control initiative in March would have buried any hopes for the endeavor. Measure G would have changed the property’s zoning and restricted such subdivisions.
With the county’s 1 percent growth cap, the company already had narrowed the number of lots it wants to sell from 400 to 186, which will includes 30 affordable lots.
Once it begins pulling building permits in July 2005, San Juan Oaks will be able to sell 25 of them a year. And the affordable properties – to cost buyers an estimated $160,000 to $240,000, without a house – must be sold first.
The 156 market rate lots will run about $250,000 to $350,000, Fuller has estimated.
Construction of a 200-room hotel must begin by the time San Juan Oaks pulls its 87th permit, according to the plan. And the club will oversee three golf courses once the project’s done – another 18-hole private course and one that’s nine holes and open to the public.
Plus, the project calls for 1,200 acres to be set aside as unobstructed, along with a 60-acre park.
The approval may have failed if Loe’s condition for the secondary road wasn’t included in the plan.
A prior vote during the meeting without the provision was 2-2, with Loe and Kesler against it.
Fuller continued his tone of being compromising toward the county’s requests up until the final vote Tuesday.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to satisfy the board today,” Fuller said.
Afterward, Loe said she wasn’t trying to kill the project. She said she has consistently supported the added inclusions – namely the fire station and secondary road.
“I think it was more just working through the conditions,” Loe said.
Only one resident, San Juan Bautista’s Rebecca McGovern – known for a hard-line stance against growth – spoke against the San Juan Oaks project Tuesday.
“We need to consider our future rather than the future of a resort area,” she said.
Kollin Kosmicki can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 331 or at
kk*******@fr***********.com
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