MARK WAITE / PVT Planner Kyle Walton outlines new plans for Willow Creek Golf Course during Wednesday's RPC meeting. MARK WAITE / PVT The greens around Willow Creek, like this practice site, have seen tough times but are expected to be brought back. Advertisement

Developers interested in building a resort with a clubhouse, casino and motel at Willow Creek Golf Course assured the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission Wednesday the course will remain open.

The RPC voted unanimously to recommend approval of a zone change for 9.1 acres from a parks/open space zone to a general commercial zone as requested by the IBI Group, despite objections of some neighboring residents on Star Road.

Nye County commissioners will consider the proposal Jan. 16, 2008.

The 19,800-square-foot casino, 100-room hotel and new, 19,950-square-foot clubhouse, pool and spa, would be located at the site of the existing clubhouse. The driving range will be shifted south and west of the clubhouse.

The company may have to shift the holes around more to make the site usable, IBI planner Kyle Walton said.

Willow Creek opened in 1977 as part of the Calvada project.

The latest proposal is the second development project proposed around the golf course in recent years.

James Veltman, Studio VBM LLC land planner, said, "Our purpose in making this request is to improve the quality of the Willow Creek Golf Course and clubhouse facility, and what seems to be working now on some of the newer developments along this land are what we call destination spa resorts."

Veltman said those spa resort projects are small scale.

The deed restriction on the property requires the land to be used for golf course facilities, which can include a hotel, motel, spa, villas and other compatible uses that don't interfere with the golf facility, he said. The general commercial zone allows buildings up to 44 feet high.

RPC members still wanted to be assured Willow Creek would remain. RPC member Carrick "Bat" Masterson said the 40-year deed restriction requiring the property be a golf course was enacted Feb. 5, 1973. It expires in 2013.

"I would think the investment we put into that project would mean that golf course would continue to stay there," Vetlman said.

RPC Chairman Mark Kimball said he could foresee the course as a conspiracy theorist: "This is a ruse to do something else."

"I'm just expressing what a lot of people would be concerned about," Kimball continued. "We've watched that golf course struggle. We watched current management close the course ... I'm just looking for a commitment that the golf course is what this is all about."

The developers agreed to RPC member Nevada Tolladay's request that they extend the deed restriction for another 30 years.

Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said the developers would have to return to the RPC to get a conditional use permit.

"This is the type of use that would be a great benefit to the community and Pahrump as a whole," Walton said.

Developers want to start construction as soon as the site plan is approved, which Walton said could be as early as next spring.

"We want to keep the golf course going and then it will be phased and go with a casino and motel area," he said. "It's the golf course that keeps the money going, so we want to do the improvements there."

Star Road residents, who live on the golf course, didn't see a benefit to the project. Developers talked about organizing a neighborhood meeting to meet their concerns.

"My husband built our home in 1998 and we built it precisely to see the mountain, Mount Charleston," said Joan Yokley, "The golf course is right out our window. We can see the mountain."

Yokley said she doesn't want to live next to commercial property. Star Road is a little cul-de-sac, she said.

John McKendrick pointed to the schools that would be near the casino, both Pahrump Valley High School and J.G. Johnson Elementary.

McKendrick also said the condition of the golf course has deteriorated since he moved to the area in 2003.

"It could be a great course. It just needs a little TLC. I don't know if a two-story hotel outside my house is going to be what I want," McKendrick said.

Frank Scott, 1441 S. Star Road, said he's lived there three years.

"Ever since I've been here, my back door is about 30 feet from the bunker of the practice green and they have neglected that to where it is virtually unusable now. They haven't taken care of the course at all," Scott said.

"I've used that practice green there all the time before when I first moved there. Now it is completely unusable," he said.

Kimball agreed: "We've all seen the photographs. It used to be beautiful, now it's terrible."

Antonio Caiati, director of operations for AMI Management, the new owners of Willow Creek golf course, said they've put $1.5 million to $2 million into the course in the last six months.

"Now it may not show, but a lot of that went into the bad debt of the previous owners that ran that course into the ground," Caiati said.

Caiati said they've been able to clean up the golf course, namely the ponds.

"I can tell you that right off the bat, if this project goes into a building stage, the very first thing we will do is sure up that golf course and do some architectural changes to it, some landscaping changes," Caiati said.

"Without this project moving forward and without the support of the community and neighborhood, I do not see that golf course staying there and operating as a golf course, and that's a shame," he said.