By Abraham Tuchman
For generations, Costa Mesa CC has served golfers of all ages and skill levels with 36 holes of municipal golf in coastal Orange County. But the future of one course became jeopardized to state housing mandates, local planning decisions, emergency access requirements and a long-vacant piece of public land next door.
The good news for golfers came on Sept.15. After hours of discussion and public comment, the Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously to approve the Specific Plan for the former Fairview Developmental Center while ensuring that the current plan would not cut an emergency access road through the Mesa Linda GC. The vote did not end every future possibility, but it did establish this important threshold protection and did establish that any future proposal affecting Mesa Linda GC would require further consideration, including consideration by a community advisory body that the Council created as part of its approval of the specific plan.
Adjacent to the city’s 36-hole golf facility sits the former Fairview Developmental Center, a state-run residential care facility and hospital that served individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities from 1959 until it closed in 2020. Since then, the property has remained vacant at a time when California cities are under increasing pressure to identify land for new housing.
The redevelopment of Fairview had been moving through a complex process and the Specific Plan before the City Council was intended to establish the framework for the eventual development of the property.
For golfers, the concern centered on one element: a proposed second emergency access road that would have cut across the Mesa Linda GC. While City officials had expressed interest in preserving the golf facility, the possibility of a road through Mesa Linda raised concerns about the disruption of a long-standing municipal golf facility.
When the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and the California Alliance for Golf (CAG) learned of the potential impact, they stepped in with a joint letter to the Mayor and City Council to support local efforts that had long been underway. The organizations offered a broader golf-industry perspective and outlined the importance of maintaining accessible public golf in a densely developed part of Southern California.
That effort was followed by a strong showing from the local golf community at the September 15 City Council meeting. City Hall was packed with junior players, local high school teams, golf clubs based at the facility and everyday players from across Orange County that spoke to the value of this public golf facility.
Council members spent hours discussing the Specific Plan and listening to public comments. At the center of the discussion was the challenge of balancing the future of the Fairview property, including housing, emergency access and traffic circulation with the existing golf facility next door.
Ultimately, the Council made its position clear: no access road would cut through Mesa Linda as part of the approved Specific Plan.
The decision does not permanently close the door on the issue. If the future developer’s proposal triggers the need for a second emergency access road, the matter could return to the City Council through an amendment process, with other alternatives explored first and any route through Mesa Linda subject to further analysis of feasibility, cost and potential course redesign.
It is not over until it is over, and the future of the Fairview property will continue to unfold through decisions involving housing, transportation, public safety, emergency access and public land. But for the time being, the golf community has reason to be encouraged. Mesa Linda remains intact , and the 36-hole Costa Mesa CC continues to serve the community.
This was a story about one course in one city, but it also pointed to something larger. When golfers, associations, junior programs, high school teams and everyday players speak clearly about the value of public golf, decision-makers listen. The Council still had to weigh difficult and competing priorities, and those choices are rarely simple. Yet the outcome showed that decisions about housing, land use and development are increasingly intersecting with the future of golf, making the golf community’s participation in those conversations more important than ever. For now, Mesa Linda remains intact.
In a state where land is scarce, housing needs are urgent, and public recreation spaces are under constant pressure, that is no small victory.
