Putting along: Rancho Murieta fights for golf cart lifestyle

By Sandy Louey -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, October 17, 2005
Story appeared in Metro section, Page B1

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/local_government/story/13727951p-14570854c.html

A Rancho Murieta resident drives across Highway 16 in her golf cart last week. The community must come up with a transportation plan to legally allow such trips.
Sacramento Bee/José Luis Villegas

 

All Rancho Murieta residents want to do is cross Highway 16. All the state wants to do is make sure they don't get hurt doing so.

That's where the golf cart meets the road.

For 30 years, residents in this golfing community in eastern Sacramento County have puttered across Highway 16 in electric vehicles that are as plentiful here as seven irons.

Then, three years ago, the California Highway Patrol told them the trips were illegal.

Highway 16, also known as Jackson Road, has a 55 mph speed limit, meaning those piloting golf carts faced a hefty $300 fine each time they meandered across it.

Special legislation passed giving the potential lawbreakers an exemption. But there was a hitch that Rancho Murieta officials only recently discovered. Now residents must come up with a golf cart transportation plan they hope will allow low-speed electric vehicles to legally amble across the highway.

Rolling through streets in an electric vehicle makes perfect sense for residents in self-contained communities such as Rancho Murieta. The gated community has about 6,000 residents - and at least 1,200 golf carts and other electric vehicles, said Ed Crouse, general manager for the Rancho Murieta Community Services District.

Yellow cart crossing signs are everywhere. Moms drop off their kids at the bus stop in their golf carts. Kids hop in and out of them to go trick-or-treating. Owners decorate them for Fourth of July and Christmas parades..

"I thought they were fairly hilarious," said Karen Muldoon, who bought a cream-colored cart after moving to Rancho Murieta seven years ago.

Muldoon runs RanchoMurieta.com, a community Web site that has monitored the issue of golf carts and Highway 16.

During warm months, Nancy Ruff hops into her champagne-colored cart several times a week to run errands across the highway at Plaza Foods and the post office. She even uses it to take her dog, Mutley, to his veterinarian appointments.

"It's absolutely pleasant," said Ruff, who has lived in Rancho Murieta for two years. "It's a wonderful thing to have."

Golf carts start at about $5,300 and can run as high as $14,000, said a sales representative with Roseville-based Electric Golf Car Co. Inc.

Del Webb, the builder of retirement communities, is big on electric vehicles. Many of the company's developments are built around golf courses - a 2,600-home community with a golf course is on the drawing board for Galt - so it's not uncommon to find homeowners tooling around in their carts. "People love it because it's cheap to operate," said Judy Bennett, Del Webb spokeswoman.

In Sun City Lincoln Hills, a Del Webb development in Placer County, residents can cruise on designated golf cart paths to nearby shopping centers. Lincoln officials are developing a golf cart transportation plan that could allow them to go elsewhere in the city.

Rancho Murieta residents thought their problems were solved in 2003, when a law passed permitting carts to cross the highway at Murieta Drive and Murieta South Parkway. They were surprised earlier this year when they discovered a golf cart transportation plan was required to make the crossings permanent.

"It slipped through the cracks," Crouse said.

State law says cities or counties that want to allow golf carts on city streets must adopt a plan spelling out where carts can cross and travel and what special lanes, signs or equipment may be needed.

The plans can be very detailed. In Palm Desert, which has had a golf cart transportation program since the early 1990s, owners who drive on city streets are required to obtain a permit every two years and provide proof of liability insurance. And their carts are inspected to make sure they're equipped with seat belts, brakes, headlights, rear lights, windshield, horn and a covered passenger compartment.

According to the CHP, there has been only one golf cart-related accident in Rancho Murieta in each of the past two years. It's unclear whether either incident was related to crossing the highway.

The transportation plan, which will take six to nine months to complete and cost up to $18,000, needs approval from the county Transportation Department, the CHP and the state Department of Transportation, said Richard Ledbetter, senior transportation planner for Fehr & Peers, which is working on golf cart plans for Rancho Murieta and Lincoln.

So far, Rancho Murieta residents find humor in the bureaucratic hurdles.

"It's like shooting a cannon to kill a fly," said Muldoon, the Web site publisher.