Sleepy Ridge Golf Course to open — without debt

OREM — It's taken Orem eight years to get its 18-hole public golf course ready to open, but when it does — this June — it will open without a penny of taxpayer debt, say officials.

"What will be great for the city is that we'll have no debt, none, no encumbrances at all," said Bruce Chesnut, public works director. "Yet it's within our community as an asset. It's just the opposite of the Cedar Hill's situation."

Cedar Hills bonded for its $7 million mountainside course, intending to lease it to recoup the bond costs and then use it as a money making asset for the city. The leasing company lost its financing and the city is now facing large yearly bond payments as well as operational costs it didn't anticipate.

As a result, Cedar Hills officials are considering a number of unwelcome options including selling the course at a loss, defaulting on the loan and/or imposing a monthly service fee on each household to help pay off the debt.

Orem officials began discussing the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course (named after a natural land feature in the area) in 1997 just after the city netted 176 acres of open ground on the west side of the city in a land trade with a group of businessmen known as the ESNET Corp.

Before that, the land was farmed by the Holdaway and Clegg families of Vineyard.

The trade secured open space for Orem, but it was also problematical as it contained nearly 50 acres of wetlands that would have to be preserved no matter how the land was developed.

That meant a lot of negotiations with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a good deal of paperwork.

Developer Golden Holt wanted to build and run the course, but the city wanted to retain some control. That meant more discussion.

A Golf Course Advisory Committee was set up that includes a City Council member, two city employees, two Orem residents and one of Holt's employees.

The committee will advise and oversee the course operation.

"We finalized the agreements two years ago. The dirt finally started to move 14 months ago," said Chesnut.

Holt is spending $6.75 million to put in the fairways and greens, the perimeter rock walls, the cart paths, the clubhouse and the maintenance sheds. He'll then get to run the course until he's made his investment back. He'll set the green fees, hire the pro and determine which venues come to the course.

After that, Orem will begin receiving a share of the profits. The city will also provide the course with reclaimed water from its sewage treatment plant that will be mixed with irrigation water to irrigate course, one of the first efforts in Utah County to make use of reclaimed water. The city expects to dramatically reduce landscaping and maintenance costs for the course by using the reclaimed water.

Homes and condominiums are being developed around the course, taking advantage of the scenic vistas and the serenity.

Chesnut is optimistic about the golf course's future even though some residents are worried about whether Utah County has saturated the golf market.

"There's lots of interest. We get lots of calls every day. That market's there," he said. "It's a hidden treasure."

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E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com

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