Rams Hill: "It’s a tale of water and desperate homeowners"

Thanks to reader Scott for a pair of sad but illuminating stories (here and here) from J. Harry Jones in the Union-Tribune on the $27 million Fazio re-do of Rams Hill that went back when the previous owner sold water rights to the local district.

This has left the Borrego Springs, California property parched and homeowners with a disastrous 70 percent decline in value, not to mention no golf course.

From Jones' follow-up explaining how the water rights deal went bad, and the consequences of not having water.

What has happened to the golf course, just a few years after it was redesigned for a reported $27 million, is not just a story of one more dream dashed by the Great Recession.

It’s a tale of water and desperate homeowners whose properties have devalued in price by as much as 70 percent in the past five years.

Some believe the future of Rams Hill could determine the fate of Borrego Springs, the small desert town in northeast San Diego County completely surrounded by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The once-stunning golf course is part of a 3,000-acre master-planned community made up of six small subdivisions, a luxury oasis in a desert hamlet dreaming of becoming a smaller alternative to Palm Springs. About 350 homes have already been built in Rams Hill — ranging from spacious estates to small retirement and vacation homes — with room for hundreds more.