CHULA VISTA, Calif — The former Salt Creek Golf Course in Chula Vista has been abandoned for more than five years, and viewers have reached out to CBS 8 wondering what’s next for the prime piece of real estate.
“It was beautiful, it was a links course, it was very difficult, it was very popular. It was really, really a prime course,” said Brendan Ward, a homeowner in the adjacent Rolling Hills Ranch neighborhood, as he reminisced about the old course in its heyday.
“They had a restaurant up there, snack bar, they had a golf shop. There’s lots of people that went up there,” said Ward.
CBS 8 called the County Recorder’s Office and they told us the land, comprised of 270 acres, is owned by the Otay Water District. The golf club was operated by Highland Links Golf Group, LLC, which leased 239 acres of the property from the water district beginning in March 2012, but the course was losing money and shut down in March 2018. At the time, Highland Links Golf Group, LLC, cited “the rising costs of water and fewer golfers” as reasons for the closure.
According to Otay Water District board of directors meeting minutes from May 2, 2018, “The district reduced its rent for the golf course property to $6,000 per month,” but the course was still unprofitable.
“A bunch of them have shut down more and more every year and it’s partly due to golf being a little less popular than it used to be in the past, but I think it’s mostly due to the price of the water, you need it to maintain the golf course,” said Ward.
It’s been more than five years since the golf course went under and now, you can hardly tell a golf course used to be there. So what’s next for the vacant land? CBS 8 reached out to the Otay Water District to find out.
Apparently, state law requires the water district to make the land available to government entities that could use it to build schools, parks, or transit developments.
A spokesperson for Otay Water District told CBS 8, “The board deemed the property surplus under the Surplus Land Act and then provided all required notifications to all necessary agencies.” Apparently, the district sent 31 offers to relevant agencies, but none of them expressed interest in the property.
Now, it appears the water district may have a potential buyer. “The property was listed for sale earlier this year and the District is currently in negotiations to complete a Purchase and Sales Agreement (PSA) for the property,” a water district spokesperson told CBS 8. “Once the PSA is completed, the District will provide the public with additional updates regarding the property.”
Meanwhile, Ward has some ideas of his own on what should go in there.
“It could be like a frisbee golf place or a park of some kind. It’s very pretty up there,” said Ward. “They’d just need to put up the little goals of the frisbee golf and they don’t need to maintain it.”
CBS 8 will stay on this story and share any updates we find out.
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