Popular Santa Clara Golf Course To Close As City Plans Massive Development
SANTA CLARA (KPIX 5) -- In less than six months, the city of Santa Clara will shut down its long running golf course to make way for a massive mixed use development that will dwarf even the mega-campus Google is planning to build in downtown San Jose.
"It will be a city within a city of entertainment, food, retail, shopping, offices and residential," Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said.
Employees received emails notifying them that the city-owned golf and tennis complex would shut down in mid-October.
"I'm sorry that we're going to lose this course. It's a really good design once you've played it a few times," said golfer Scott Leong, who says he's played the course a couple times a year for the past three decades.
The city council greenlit the City Place project back in 2016. The mayor says the contractor plans to break ground sometime next year.
"They have to be fair to us. They have to not destroy our livelihood and family and include us in their future planning," said David Ebrahimi, the owner of David's Restaurant and Banquet Hall which sits next to the 18th hole.
Ebrahimi says his restaurant remains open for business despite the planned closure of the golf course. Ebrahimi says the restaurant's owners are fighting the city's efforts to use eminent domain to evict him and shutter his business.
Mayor Gillmor say the city tried to include Ebrahimi's business in their future plans for the site, but the negotiations ultimately failed.
"He's been given opportunities to be part of the development. It hasn't worked out for him. But that's the only business aside from American Golf that on that 230 acres right now," Mayor Gillmor said.
