Wine Country Times

City of Santa Rosa Councilman Tom Schwedhelm confirmed The Bennett Valley Golf Course (BVGC) Ad Hoc Committee’s unanimous decision to not yet finalize its Bennett Valley Golf Course operator appointment and real estate transaction in an effort to prioritize wider city issues.

“The committee unanimously agreed that given significant public feedback concerns as well as the need to focus on more significant citywide issues, that staff should not proceed with conducting an evaluation in Bennett Valley Golf Course,” Schwedhelm said.

The Ad hoc committee, identified by Mayor Rogers and chaired by member John Sawyer, is tasked with targeting larger issues across the city and implementing a plan of recommendation. Despite its decision to pause the development of the 72, 6,500-yard course after receiving concerned feedback from the public, the staff was given the green light to produce a comprehensive operations evaluation of the golf enterprise, detailing its recommendations ahead of its operator solicitation proposal to the council in early 2022. 

“The committee was very supportive of asking staff to begin preparing a comprehensive operational evaluation of the golf enterprise with a focus on presenting a financially constrained proposal to Council,” Schwedhelm said.

A BVGC Ad Hoc committee meeting will be held at the end of this month to discuss and draft the recommendations. Some of the crucial elements of the evaluation will be the golf club’s ability to allocate its own earnings toward the development, refinance and prepayment options for its bond debt, securing long-term maintenance, and the selection of a single operator for both establishments. 

“Their next meeting is scheduled for the end of this month, but they wanted to make sure that they share with the community what their initial recommendations are going to be,” Schwedhelm said.

Though a few parties have expressed an interest to oversee the Legends Sports Grill, Schwedhelm assured that the future of the operations system for the entertainment site and the full, three-course-meal service food spot is still being considered.

“Those type of decisions evaluations don't happen overnight, so it will be an ongoing discussion,” Schwedhelm said. “But again, that will be competing against the other priorities and set by the council a couple of weeks ago.”

The councilman highlighted the committee’s consideration of a single operating system proved to be one of the most effective for similar businesses. 

“I have been told that those are the most successful models for municipal golf courses throughout the state and nation. So there is definitely an interest in exploring for that to happen here in Santa Rosa," he said.