County says no golf at Trinitas

A final round in the years-long dispute over Trinitas, a Wallace-area golf course built on land zoned for agricultural use only, may get played out in court.

So indicated property owner Mike Nemee Thursday when contacted about a May 15 letter to him from Calaveras County’s then-top planning official.
  

Golfing was essentially ruled illegal at the Ospital Road 280-acre property as of May 5, when county supervisors refused to rezone it to allow for recreational activities. The board also nixed the proposal by Nemee and his wife, Michelle, to build a clubhouse, lodge, spa and 13 luxury homes.

Brent Harrington, who at the time was interim director of the county Community Development Agency, then backed up the board’s stance in the letter to the Nemees.

“If the site is used for golfing, the county will have to assume you are willfully allowing the use of the site contrary to county code and the board’s decision of May 12. The county will have no choice but to initiate enforcement action,” the letter states.

County planner Shaelyn Stratten on Thursday confirmed that supervisors actually issued the vote May 5 and that Harrington’s letter mistakenly gives a wrong date.    

Harrington wrote the letter on his last day heading the agency — which county supervisors earlier voted to dissolve in order to re-establish separate planning, building and public works departments.

The Nemees have until June 1 to appeal the letter’s golf cease-and-desist order.

Mike Nemee on Thursday declined to say specifically how he and his family would respond, but suggested legal action is ahead.

“At this point, we have offered numerous compromises to the county. Beyond that, I can’t comment due to pending litigation,” he said.

Nemee did say he and his family were “surprised” by Harrington’s letter.

“We’ve been working with the county in good faith for the past six years and we’ve never been found in violation of county zoning code,” he said.

“The content of the letter is contrary to what we were told by county officials in meetings and in writing,” he said. “The content of the letter is also contrary to what county officials have been telling our bank since 2006.”

Nemee would not elaborate but it has been reported that the CDA’s former director, Stephanie Moreno, had told Nemee’s bank that a public golf course would be allowed there, an assurance that prompted the bank to grant Nemee loans for his project.

Harrington’s letter also makes reference to the Nemees’ staunch position that past county officials had assured them that the golf course work they started in 2001 was allowed.

“There is still disagreement about what you were told by county staff in the past regarding grading for a golf course, and whether your actions complied with what you were told,” the letter states.

Regardless, the county is only requiring now that all golfing stop, not that the course itself be removed, Harrington writes.

“If you allow golf play, there is a valid argument that the course is a physical nuisance associated with an illegal use, and the county would be required to initiate action to require the removal of the course to prevent use of the site for golfing,” the letter further notes.

Applauding the letter in part are members of Keep It Rural Calaveras, a group made up of some neighbors of the golf course and others who have argued for years that grading for the golf course should have never been allowed and that having a public golf resort would ruin the area’s quality of life. Concerns about an adequate water supply and the narrow roads leading to the course have also been raised often.

But group members — who say golfers were playing the course earlier this week — question Harrington’s position in the letter that the golf course now amounts to “landscaping” and may remain, provided no golfers play there.   

“The letter makes it clear that the use of the agricultural land for a golf course has been denied and that continued golfing will bring code enforcement. KIRC appreciates this clear and strong statement,” states an e-mail from active group member Lew Mayhew, who lives near the Trinitas acreage.

“The letter tentatively separates golfing from the golf course itself, saying that it may be viewed as ‘landscaping’,” the KIRC statement continues. “ ... At some point the components of irrigation, greens, fairways, cart paths and holes in the ground become a golf course, which is not a permitted use on agricultural lands. This logic could be stretched to view an illegally constructed house as a ‘collection of wood sticks’.”

The statement concludes that the course should be taken out, under the watchful eye of county, state and federal agencies, and that the land should again be used for permitted agricultural pursuits.

Should the Nemees file an appeal by June 1, said Stratton, the county Planning Commission would first review their arguments and the now eight-year-old Trinitas project would be forwarded to county supervisors for more review and possibly another vote.