Sun City residents protest development plans for golf course

The grass is dead and the fairways vacant at the closed Cherry Hills Golf Course. (Staff photo)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Opposition to proposed development on the closed Cherry Hills and North Golf Courses is growing, even as the developer continues to have neighborhood meetings in attempts to quell the anger.

Residents of the Sun City 55+ community have expressed anger since 2017, when the North Course was closed by a Korea-based company that purchased it just three months earlier from members of the club, which had been in existence since the 1960s. That frustration grew as the condition of the closed North Course deteriorated, and as the Cherry Hills Course also began to show signs of unmaintained greens.

Things got worse for the locals when, in January 2024, California Golf and Art LLC closed the Cherry Hills Course and sold the property to Ambient Communities, a real estate development company based in San Diego. In February of this year, Ambient representatives held a public meeting to introduce themselves and allegedly to solicit ideas from residents about development on the property.

Sun City residents packed the ballroom at the Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel, shouting accusations and peppering the stunned developers with questions. Some time later, another large crowd attended a second community meeting with Ambient at the Sun City Civic Association complex, where one resident said Ambient representative Wade Hall was practically booed off the stage.

“They were shouting, ‘This guy is going to ruin our community and he’s not going to get away with it,’” said Brian Holley, one of the most vocal opponents of the development. “[Hall] was going to walk away. Some of the residents approached him on his way out and he said, ‘I’ve never had my a-- handed to me like that.’”

Hall and others from Ambient have been trying to calm things down ever since. Even so, their preliminary descriptions of a community of about 1,000 homes on the former golf course property is, as Holley says, “scaring the bejesus out of everyone.”

For the record, Ambient has not filed any plans with the City of Menifee. In a series of smaller meetings with groups of residents recently, Hall has been telling the locals that he realizes this will be a long process, with many hurdles to be cleared.

First and foremost, he admits, is a major zoning change that would be required. The 300-acre property is zoned in Menifee’s General Plan as “passive recreation and open space”, meaning no residential or commercial development is allowed.

Moreover, much of the property serves as a flood control channel. When Del Webb created the retirement community in the 1960s, he did not install an underground drainage system. Rain water was designed to run through a series of channels, across fairways, and even over roads to enter Salt Creek, where it drains all the way to Canyon Lake. Hall admits that county flood control officials have told him that much of the property could not be built upon for this reason.

Even though at the February meeting Hall told residents he has “zero interest in grading 300 acres and putting thousands of houses in there,” he now shows preliminary plans of access roads running down the middle of what used to be fairways, with rows of houses on each side.

Even if the zoning were changed to residential and Hall planned to build on the 200 or so acres outside the drainage plain, he would face a legal battle from the residents. The CC&Rs for the Sun City Civic Association include a clause stating that much of the property “is restricted to golf course use only.”

According to SCCA documents, a majority vote of the residents would be needed to remove that restriction. In addition, the vote would only be valid if at least two-thirds of the residents cast ballots.

Hall avoids discussing this, referring instead to meetings that should be held between legal representatives of both sides. Meanwhile, Ambient continues with the public meetings and has begun to water the dead grass until the issue is resolved.

“There have been a couple legal exchanges between your civic association and us,” Hall told residents in a recent meeting. “Your attorney sent us a letter, saying the issue is subject to CC&Rs. Our attorney then wrote a letter, saying, ‘If you want to talk about legal issues, I need to be there.’ Somehow that got translated into a message that we don’t want to talk to you. That’s not true at all.

“It will take at least a year and a half to get anything approved. There’s opposition in any project like this.”

Some of those most opposed to the project are residents who live on the golf course itself. With homes backing up to fairways, they have seen their view deteriorate into a scene of dead grass, weeds, stray animals and even homeless individuals. These are residents who say they paid extra for homes on the golf course, and they are furious.

“Over six years ago, we moved to Sun City and specifically searched for a home on the Cherry Hills Golf Course,” said Tony Reverditto. “We found the perfect location on Bradley Road, with a west-facing unobstructed view, so we could enjoy the sunsets. When I heard the news that the golf course was secretly sold, I was outraged.

“I went to the first meeting at the Fairfield Inn when residents came in droves expressing their disdain. I attended the next big meeting at the Amphitheater in Sun City. Ambient continued to be met with resistance. Their next move was to form committees, ranging from amenities to golf to commercial development. I have attended three of those meetings and suggested the amenities that I felt would lend themselves nicely on the course.

“At the last meeting, it was clear it was all lip service and that Wade Hall from Ambient had one clear vision -- to build at least 1,000 homes in the areas that are not flood zones. He even had two potential architectural design plans packed with residential pods. Those prior meetings were futile and now I feel jerked around.

“If they continue to persist, myself and numerous residents will fight them every step of the way. This is not why we bought homes on a golf course.”

Pressed for details at a recent meeting, Hall explained why housing is a must for Ambient to make a profit.

“I need enough in HOA fees to maintain the property. The drainage property I can’t build on,” he said. "We’re talking about pods of homes, six on a side. Not a long string of linear housing, trying to pack them in. If we wanted, we could put 2,000 homes in here easily. But there’s no way any of you would be excited about that, right?

“First we have to find out if it’s even possible. What you see today is just pencil drawings.”

Hall refers people to the website thecherryhillsproject.com for details.

Another website concerning the issue is a new one – savecherryhillsgolf.com. It was launched this week by Scott Abadjian, who lives on the third fairway. He plans to enlist concerned residents to join him in gaining signatures for petitions, contacting the media, and hiring a legal team to fight the Ambient development.

“I didn’t want to do this; I waited a year to do it, but now I have to," Abadjian said. "Too many others are older than me and not up for the fight.

“We plan to hire a legal team, advertise, put people on the street to spread the word. This is not going to be a part-time deal. I’d prefer not to go legal, but we will pressure Ambient to do the right thing and re-open the golf course.”

Because this is a private land development issue and Ambient has not submitted plans to the City of Menifee, city officials have no comment at this point.

Map shows the location of the two closed golf courses.