MW Investment tanks golf course redevelopment project in Duarte

A plan by MW Investment Group to scale down an executive golf course to fit an RV parking lot in Duarte has sailed into the rough.

The proposal by the Laguna Beach-based developer to redesign Rancho Duarte Golf Course was killed by the City Council after residents turned out to oppose the project at 1000 Las Lomas Road, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

“If you’re telling me that you don’t want me to vote for this — I’m not gonna vote for it,”  Mayor Judy Shulz told residents. She later confirmed the project had been tanked.

The nine-hole golf course was built 40 years ago atop a 32-acre, 40-foot-deep gravel pit that was used as a dump for household trash. In 2013, the property was sold to Americasia Investment, owned by Chinese investors, for $3.3 million.

The golf course, now surrounded by 122 homes, has been on the market for an undisclosed price for eight years. It has become run down, with broken fences, poor netting and methane gas leaks through old dumpsite pipes.

The city considers its current owner absentee. When asked to make upgrades, even for safety’s sake, Americasia has either refused or made minimal repairs, according to the mayor.

Enter MW Investment, which broached a plan last month to “revitalize” the aging links — by stripping away three holes and replacing them with a 675-space asphalt storage lot for RVs and boats.

The plan stoked outrage among residents of the San Gabriel Valley city, who said shrinking the golf course to build a parking garage would devalue their homes.

Cheryl Alexander, who lives off the fourth hole, said a real estate agent told her that without the golf course, her home would lose 50 percent of its value.

“It’s always crowded, there’s people out there all the time,” Alexander told a community meeting hosted by MW Investment. “Duarte does not have movie theaters. They took away our bowling alley. That golf course is the only family space that we have in our city.”

Matt Waken, a managing member of MW, presented the firm’s golf course plan, including infrastructure upgrades and the smaller course paired with the RV lot, which he said was the most profitable option. 

It didn’t fly with residents.

“There is no golf course in this layout, sir,” resident Travis Patson said, addressing Waken. “The golf course is gone. … What this golf course needs is an owner that is not a developer. This golf course needs an owner that wants to see it reach its full potential.”

In October, MW Investment won approval for another controversial plan to swap the pins of the seven-decade-old Pickwick Bowl in Burbank with 92 townhomes.

— Dana Bartholomew