Category: General articles

Two groups appeal approval of Oceanside artificial surf lagoon resort

Two local groups have appealed the Oceanside Planning Commission’s approval of Ocean Kamp, a proposed resort with a three-story hotel, restaurants, shops and 700 homes to be built around an artificial surf lagoon.

The appeals by Preserve Calavera and San Diegans for Sustainable, Economic and Equitable Development (SD SEED) will send the commission’s decision to the Oceanside City Council. In recent years, the council has given the go-ahead to a number of large hotels and residential developments such as the proposed 585-home North River Farms community, despite significant opposition from nearby residents.

Both appeals raise similar concerns — economic sustainability, water supply, safety issues with the nearby airport, the use of an environmental impact report completed for a previous project, compliance with the city’s Climate Action Plan, and the analysis of details such as fire response times , traffic and energy consumption.

Ocean Kamp is proposed for the 92-acre site

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We Ko Pa’s new look

Imagine stepping inside a cruise ship, but instead of ocean water, you’re surrounded by the Sonoran Desert.

We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort, about 30 miles northeast of central Phoenix on land owned by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, is where this vision becomes reality as a reimagined one-stop vacation spot.

People who visited We-Ko-Pa before the pandemic will find a different, higher-end experience today, said Gail Manginelli, a spokeswoman for the resort.

“We have everything right here — fine dining, a casino, golf, outdoor activities and a spa,” she said. “And you feel like you’re away from it all, even though you’re close enough. All you see is desert.”

Coming soon:This famous Scottsdale resort is getting a luxurious upgrade

A reinvention and rebranding

The 166.341-square-foot casino resort, an AAA Four Diamond hotel, reinvented and rebranded itself upon the completion of a new, 100% smoke-free casino in October 2020. It replaced the

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Oceanside surf lagoon resort makes waves at meeting

SAN DIEGO — Plans to build a resort and new homes around a wave lagoon cleared a key hurdle in Oceanside last week.

Ocean Camp would take over a 92-acre site at Mission Avenue and Foussat Road, near state Route 76, that was once used for swap meets and a drive-in theater.

Developers outlined their vision for the project at a July 25 Oceanside Planning Commission Meeting. Resort lodging would include a four-story hotel with 232 rooms, over a dozen more “villas” and “casitas,” and a series of Airstream trailers for guests on site.

The rooms will surround a 3.5-acre lagoon with artificial waves of various sizes for surfers. The technology is similar to that of Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, just south of Fresno.

A map for the Ocean Kamp development, which includes an artificial surf lagoon, resort and new
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A New York City-area golf resort? Crystal Springs is a rare commodity

The design at Ballyowen offers a taste of Ireland in New Jersey.

courtesy crystal springs

You come to New York for Broadway, the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art and soup dumplings in Chinatown. If you come for the golf, you … try to procure a precious tee time at Bethpage Black? Scan your phone contacts for members at Winged Foot?

The city that never sleeps can be an exhausting place for public-access golfers, and this from someone who called the place home for more than a decade. Traffic’s a bear, courses are crowded. Other parts of the country have plenty of top-of-mind topnotch resort stays. Out west, Bandon Dunes and Pebble Beach; Pinehurst and Sea Pines in the Southeast; Streamsong in Florida, and so on. Less so, no-brainers in the Northeast and particularly the New York City area — because Crystal

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Forest Service OKs Vail Resorts to repair damaged tundra at Keystone

The US Forest Service is allowing Vail Resorts to continue building a new lift at Keystone after the company submitted a plan to repair tundra damaged by a temporary road that extended beyond permitting boundaries. But the monthlong delay in construction will prevent the resort from opening new terrain in Bergman Bowl by this winter.

White River National Forest supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams on Thursday said he accepted Vail Resorts’ cure for improperly grading 2.5 acres outside of approved construction boundaries, including 1.5 acres above treeline in the fragile alpine zone. The company’s construction crews also filled a wetland creek with logs and graded over it to create a road crossing and did not save topsoil and vegetation for replanting after construction, all of which the agency found “were not consistent with Forest Service expectations.”

Fitzwilliams rescinded his order of noncompliance and canceled the cease-and-desist order he issued last month after

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