Trinitas seeks court order to keep teeing up

The owners of a controversial Wallace-area golf course project want a court order allowing golfers to play the greens, despite rulings to the contrary by Calaveras County supervisors and planners.

Michael and Michelle Nemee, through attorney Ken Foley, of San Andreas, have filed a complaint in Calaveras County Superior Court. It seeks a judge’s order that the county refrain from “interfering, in any way,” with the Trinitas olive oil business and golf course the Nemees have built on their Ospital Road land.

The 280 acres are zoned for agriculture use, which doesn’t include golf, the county leaders contend.

Untrue, Foley’s complaint responds.
   

“Operation of an olive farm with a golf course is a permitted use for agriculturally zoned property in Calaveras County as agritourism,” the complaint states.

By a 3-2 vote, supervisors on May 5 turned down the Nemees’ request to change their acreage to recreational zoning, then also rejected the Nemees’ proposal to build a golf clubhouse, lodge, spa and 13 high-end homes.

On May 15, then-interim Calaveras County Community Development Director Brent Harrington followed up with a letter to the Nemees telling them that, while they indeed have a golf course, golfing on it is forbidden. Any form of golfing there violates the county’s agricultural preserve zoning code, it states.

The letter further notes the course itself may remain but that the county may order that it all be removed should “any type” of golfing go on.

The court action marks the latest chapter in what has become a years-long saga over the Trinitas project.

The Nemees in 2001 started golf course grading work on their property and, after first saying the course they had planned would be for their private use, in 2007 sought permits for the recreational zoning and buildings that would turn the project into a luxury golf resort.

Several neighbors and others have strongly objected to the work, claiming it was illegal, jeopardized the rural area’s quality of life and raised serious water supply and environmental concerns.

The Nemees, their attorneys and supporters have countered repeatedly that county officials repeatedly assured them the work under way on their land was acceptable.

Foley’s complaint includes documentation that the Nemees since 2006 have been paying higher property taxes that the county assessor set based on his appraisal that the golf course had raised the land’s value.

Cited, too, is a section of the county zoning code noting that an agriculture-related venture that “adds to the economic viability of the agricultural operation” is allowed on land zoned for agriculture.

“Although the definition does not expressly identify golf, it gives a non-exclusive list of exemplar uses, several of which encompass golf, such as ‘outdoor recreation’ and ‘recreation,’ ” Foley writes.

Also included is a letter from Calaveras County Farm Adviser Ken Churches — who, with representatives from the county’s cattle, wine and farming industries — wrote the county’s agricultural zoning ordinance, which supervisors adopted in 2006.

The letter from Churches to the Nemees’ planning consultant states that the ordinance purposely leaves the definition of agricultural operations “fairly general” so that these businesses could “adapt to changing demands.”

Churches’ letter also cites a University of California publication that lists golfing among a variety of outdoor sports and activities that should be considered as agritourism.

Trinitas project opponents, including several neighbors, said they have seen golfers playing the course almost daily since the Board of Supervisors’ May 5 decision and also after Harrington’s May 15 letter. 

One of them, Jackie Neill, of Wallace Lake Estates, said news of the Nemees’ court action did not surprise her.

“It’s an illegal business,” she said of the golf course.

Still, she predicted that controversies over Trinitas, while dating eight years back, will not be resolved entirely for some time to come.

Michael Nemee could not be reached for comment on the court action. As of late last week, though, he remained firm in his long-standing position that he and his family have followed county rules throughout the building and operating of their golf course.

The injunction notes that, beyond a court order allowing up to 75 golfers to play the course at a time and costs of the litigation, Nemee is not seeking “monetary relief” from the county.