Los Feliz Golf Course Reopens With Major Improvements

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A grand reopening ceremony was held Monday morning at the Los Feliz Golf Course revealing major improvements throughout the 15-acre facility, Recreation and Parks officials said.

A month after shutting down for a partial closure, the nine-hole putting course has been retrofitted with an automated recycled water system installed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Department of Recreation and Parks.

"We do live in a desert," LA Department of Recreation and Parks' Michael Shull said. "So any time that we can save a lot of water, we should be taking that opportunity."

The project cost DWP about $1.6 million. The course used to consume about the same amount of water as about 30 households over a year's time.

Officials estimate the water system will save the facility around 5.5 million gallons of domestic drinking water per year, which will prove to be even more beneficial during times of drought.

"We're a very large water user in the department with the city of Los Angeles, and the Recreation of Parks operates more than sixteen thousand acres of property, and fourteen golf courses," Shull said. "So we have to take it very seriously."

According to city officials, the majority of the Los Feliz Golf Course capital improvement project was completed by Recreation and Parks staff, which was funded by the DWP.

Some of these improvements include enhanced course drainage, tree trimming, turf improvements and upgrades to the concrete near the parking lot and café. A restroom was also added near the back of the course, officials said.

The replacement of greens with natural native grass also gave some an example for their own properties.

"We went, we got rid of our grass," LA City Councilman Tom LaBonge said. "It was a little grassy area on the side of the house, it was non-native. And it's very good, because you use less water."

City officials report that this is the sixth public golf course to receive recycled water from the DWP in a continuing effort to embrace the city's strategic water-conservation plan.

The Los Feliz Golf Course, just east of the 5 freeway, is adjacent to Griffith Park and attracts golfers of all ages.