Proposed sand mining project at Cottonwood Golf Club faces pushback

Nov. 14, 2018 4:35 PM PT

Reporting from East County —

A developer who specializes in buying distressed golf courses and then closing them is proposing to turn an East County course into a sand mine.

Michael Schlesinger, who owns the sites that formerly housed the Escondido Country Club and the Stone Ridge Country Club in Poway, wants to convert the Cottonwood Golf Club in unincorporated El Cajon into a 10-year mining operation.

The club was once a thriving destination with two 18-hole courses in the rolling hills near Jamul. The Sweetwater River cuts through the club, which opened in 1962 on Willow Glen Drive, near Highway 94.

The proposed three-phase, 158-acre project would produce 3.8 million cubic yards or 5.7 million tons of mineral resources over a period of 10 years, and potentially bring its owners up to $40 million, according to the consulting firm hired by Schlesinger.

If the sand mining plan makes it through the county approval process, with minimal changes, grading could begin as soon as 2020, said Warren Coalson, president of EnviroMINE.

EnviroMINE is the mining and environmental consulting service hired by Schelsinger, a Los Angeles-based businessman who bought the struggling Cottonwood in February 2015.

Cottonwood in 2011 filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal bankruptcy court. Schlesinger is the same person who took over the two failing North County golf clubs in 2012 and 2013.

Schlesinger’s Cottonwood Cajon ES, LLC, is looking to turn the golf courses into a sand mine and reclamation project for 10 to 12 years. Post-mining plans show open space, recreational trails and land suitable for development, which will need a separate OK from the Board of Supervisors.

Schlesinger has been trying to put housing projects on the former golf courses in Escondido and Poway.

At the Cottonwood site, sand excavation and processing west of the current Pro Shop would happen from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Trucking operations during the week would run from 4 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to avoid peak traffic periods in the area. Material sales and transportation would go from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

The plan is not sitting well with residents in the Valle de Oro area, more than 100 of whom packed a planning group meeting on Nov. 6 to share their concerns about the future of the golf course land.

Locals cited concerns of safety for students walking and biking to and from nearby Jamacha Elementary School on Jamul Drive and Steele Canyon High School off Campo Road. They also said they were worried about the biological impact, utility issues, noise pollution and other health effects, property values and the aesthetics of the environment.

The club is also home course to the girls golf teams from Christian (El Cajon), Granite Hills, Monte Vista and Mount Miguel high schools.

During a Friday afternoon outing on Cottonwood’s Ivanhoe course, Micki Felix of Lakeside, the reigning champion of the Cottonwood Ladies Golf Club, said she had not heard about the sand mine and expressed concern.

Mission Valley resident Mike Keeney, vice president of the Cottonwood Men’s Club, has been playing at Cottonwood for more than 50 years. He called the venue “a landmark” and said that even though the new ownership closed one of the courses, the other “is in great shape now.”

In 2016, Schlesinger brought in Western Golf Properties to manage The Lakes and Ivanhoe golf courses at the club, then soon after closed The Lakes. Three of the site’s eight lakes still have water, but much of the course is dirt and trees that need a lot of TLC.

Cottonwood employees say transients regularly sneak in through the fence surrounding The Lakes course and build makeshift homes under bridges on the premises. On Friday, the door to a bathroom along the course was open and looked to have been recently used.

“We’re sad about what’s going on with the new owner, but we have no choice in the matter; he’s going to do what he’s going to do,” Keeney said. “This is just one of his assets. For him, there’s no love for Cottonwood. There’s sand all through the area, up to Singing Hills. It’s all riverbed. There’s alternatives besides digging up the place, but this is the property that he owns.”

Coalson of EnviroMINE said after the 158-acre grading, about 122 acres will be reclaimed by grading and revegetation along the former golf course areas.

Coalson said the state has officially identified and recognized the area, classifying it as a regionally significant aggregate resource.

A special report by the California Department of Conservation, the 2017 California Geological Survey, included the Cottonwood area as one of nine “new (yet, undesignated) aggregate resource Sectors for PCC-grade aggregate.”

PCC is Portland cement concrete, considered the scarcest and most valuable of aggregate resources, the report said.

“It’s important for the local economy,” Coalson said. “Aggregate is the cornerstone of the economy.”

David Johnston, chairman of the Valle de Oro Planning Group, said they have faced a lot of anger and frustration from residents. Johnston said the group had just a few days’ notice about the sand mine presentation.

He said emotions are high among residents as they are finding out about Cottonwood’s possible fate.

“It was just a presentation, but a lot of people are upset with us,” Johnston said.

The project will have to be vetted several times along the way, meet local and state environmental standards and requirements, then head to the San Diego County Planning and Development Services, the Planning Commission and then the Board of Supervisors.

Coalson said he hopes those living in the area “turn the volume down and listen.”

“We want to work with them,” he said. “Currently, there are no pedestrian trails. Perhaps we can put some in or re-route a bikeway lane through our project... things like that.

“And when we’re done we can put in a much better habitat than what’s there now with the golf course.”

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com