Sandpiper Golf Club is planning an ambitious renovation to its property, featuring an eco-friendly redesign of the course and greater public access to the property and its surroundings.
The 18-hole golf course, owned by Ty Warner, received unanimous approval at a Goleta City Council meeting on June 2, for a massive overhaul that has been four years in the making.
The course will feature four distinct public dining spots and a redesign of the course itself led by world-renowned golf course architect Tom Doak.
The design includes public pathways to the property, new beach access and trails. Crews plan to remove power lines along Hollister Avenue and place them underground. Changes are also coming to the course’s clubhouse, which will be overseen by Winick Architects.
Barry Winick, Winick Architects founder and CEO, told the News-Press that the clubhouse’s design had to be “subservient to the landscape and the golf.”
He describes it more as an “organic building,” one that will make it difficult to spot where it ends and the tee begins.
The new clubhouse’s public features will include a grab-and-go store on the first floor—catering to golfers to take small bites out onto the course—a second-floor restaurant and bar, as well as a sunset terrace overlooking the Channel Islands.
Winick told the News-Press that cost estimates and construction time are still waiting on the California Coastal Commission’s review of the project.
Working alongside Winick is Tom Doak, an internationally recognized golf course architect, one that CNN called the “green gardner of eco-friendly courses.” Of the more than 40 courses he’s designed, five are recognized in the world’s top 100.
The idea behind Doak’s rendition of the course is for the design to blend with the topography, allowing the course to be nature friendly, while still offering a fun experience for the golfer.
“None of the changes we’re proposing are really drastic,” said Doak, in a video on the Sandpiper Golf Club website. “The main goal is to do a better job of shaping greens and bunkers so they have more appeal to the golfer. And to make better use of the views that are out there so the golfer will really appreciate them.”
The Sandpiper project also includes a makeover of the historic Barnsdall Rio Grande gas station building. This historic filling station was built in 1929, one year after oil was first struck in the Ellwood Oil Field.
The rerouting of Highway 101 steered motorists away from the gas station, and the charming 97-year-old relic has stood collecting dust behind a barbed wire fence on Hollister Avenue since.
As part of the renovation, the existing building will be restored to accompany a nearby coffee shop. Winick said that the Barnsdall building itself will not be changed, but retrofitted to its original state so as to “treat the building more as a jewel.”
Next to the coffee shop, there will be outdoor seating beneath a shaded terrace, a small parking lot, as well as signage and a bronze plaque that will display historical information of the building. The area will feature E-bike charging stations in the form of the original pumps, maintaining the station’s 50s roadside vibe.
Crews also plan to extend of the historic coastal De Anza trail along the property.
The project also calls for improving the stability of the bluffs and rehabilitating and preserving the native plants.
Crews plan to preplace the irrigation system—reducing use from 125 to 62 acres—and install an on-site weather station to measure water distribution. About half of the irrigated areas will be replaced with native grasses and plants.
