From Fairways to Servers: Data Center Proposed at California Country Club

• Ramus Development plans a 99-megawatt data center on 18 acres of the 124-acre California Country Club.
• The club's 18-hole course shrinks to nine holes on the remaining land.
• Birtcher Development is leading entitlements, with a full EIR ahead.
• The team projects a 13% cut in the property's total water use.

A 99-MW Campus on a Longtime Golf Property

Ramus Development wants to turn part of a San Gabriel Valley golf course into a data center. The company has owned and managed the California Country Club at 1509 Workman Mill Road in the City of Industry for more than 20 years. It now plans to carve about 18 acres out of the 124-acre property for a technology campus rated at up to 99 megawatts.

The project, branded the LA Recreation and Technology Park (LARTP), keeps golf on site but at half the size. The club's existing 18-hole course would become a privately operated nine-hole course. The remaining roughly 106 acres would hold golf, landscaping, habitat, open space and circulation, with about 750 new trees proposed. Irrigated turf drops from about 97 acres to about 33.

The site runs along the 605 Freeway near where San Jose Creek meets the San Gabriel River. Ramus has not released the data center's square footage, height or story count. In announcing the project on November 3, Ramus President Stephen Cho promised a transparent entitlement process and a design shaped by the community.

Birtcher Leads the Entitlement Push

Ramus hired Birtcher Development, an 87-year-old, five-generation family real estate firm, to run the entitlement and public review process. The team is seeking a project-specific land use framework (a proposed Specific Plan) through the City of Industry, which means review by city staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council.

The project will also go through a full environmental impact report under CEQA, with oversight from the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. No EIR schedule has been published yet.

Birtcher President Brooke Birtcher Gustafson is pitching a community benefits board made up of advisors from neighboring communities. Its recommendations would shape a Community Benefits Agreement, and she says the board is meant to give residents a formal voice in the process.

The Water and Power Math

Water is the team's lead argument, and it starts with the golf course. The club currently uses about 445 acre-feet a year, roughly 145 million gallons. Under the plan, the nine-hole course would use about 329 acre-feet, data center landscaping about 58 and the data center itself less than one, for a total of about 388. That's the 13% reduction the team is citing.

The data center would be 100% air-cooled with a closed-loop system, and the developer says its roughly 300,000 gallons a year would mostly serve the office portions. Golf irrigation would use recycled, non-potable water. The EIR will test all of these figures.

On power, the team says Southern California Edison has capacity to serve the site. LARTP would pay for new transmission lines and an onsite substation, and the developer projects the project will reduce, not raise, electricity rates for nearby residents. It also says the campus will run on 100% renewable generation.

Labor Is Already Signed On

Ramus has negotiated a project labor agreement with the California Building Trades that includes local hiring provisions and an apprenticeship program. The team projects more than 1,500 construction jobs and nearly 200 permanent technical and maintenance positions. It also plans a local workforce training program with labor and educational partners. Ernesto Medrano, Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, has called the project a model for other data center developments.

A Different Play for an Aging Golf Asset

Struggling Los Angeles-area courses have usually been redeveloped as housing. One recent example is a 398-home plan for part of the Woodland Hills Country Club property. LARTP is trying something else: keep the golf course, shrink it and use the freed-up land for digital infrastructure.

The approach comes as data center proposals face pushback across Southern California. A planned project in El Segundo was cancelled this year after opposition from residents, and Monterey Park has banned new data centers. That's why the Ramus team is putting a full EIR, a signed labor agreement and a community board at the center of its pitch.

What's Next

The next step is the EIR scoping process, followed by hearings before the City of Industry Planning Commission and City Council. Ramus says the final mix, location, access and operating details of the recreation space are still to be decided. Those, along with the data center's building size, should come out as the environmental review moves forward.