The mere mention of his name can cause the blood pressure of the city's planning staff to rise like a golf ball leaving the tee.
For more than five years, George Schneiter has stubbornly resisted Sandy's attempts to bring his Pebblebrook Golf Course into full compliance with city codes.A nine-hole expansion that Schneiter began in the late 1980s is still without city approval and - officially - is not open for business. In reality, golfers are playing all 18 of the course's holes every day and, according to residents along Pebble Hills Circle, launching golf balls into back yards - and windows - beyond the eighth green.
There has been give and take on both sides over the years as Schneiter and the city have played through a course of Planning Commission meetings, Board of Adjustment hearings, court proceedings and occasionally productive dialogues, hitting more obstacles than a beginner on the Pebblebrook links.
Many issues remain unresolved, like the city's contention that part of the expansion was built on property it owns. But the long battle has come down to one central dilemma - what to do about the eighth green.
Tonight, the Sandy City Board of Adjustment will consider Schneiter's appeal of a May 18 Planning Commission decision to require, among other things, that the eighth green be lowered 20 feet to decrease the chances of golf balls flying off the course and into suburbia.
Schneiter says the Planning Commission didn't give full consideration to the testimony of four local golf course architects who say the green doesn't need to be altered. Richard Bigler, a California-based golf architect hired by the city, recommended the change.
If Schneiter's appeal is denied, he once again could drag the city into district court, probably delaying final resolution by another year or more. But city officials are optimistic that a denial of the appeal tonight could signal the beginning of an end to the long ordeal.
Schneiter's appeal is the last of seven items scheduled for the board's consideration tonight. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.
"My frustration with this whole thing is that we have worked for years with him and have been able to get certain changes made . . . but we've always had to spend a tremendous amount of time and energy to get him to agree," said Mike Coulam, the city's director of community development.
"We're delighted to have the golf course there, we badly need the amenity. We're happy to have people out golfing and enjoying the facility, but he has always created an unsafe situation and a nuisance situation for certain people who live along the course.
"Until he resolves those issues, he is operating on that new portion of the course illegally."
But that doesn't seem to bother Schneiter, who claims he was given city approval for all 18 holes in the early 1970s, when he built the first nine.
Mayor Tom Dolan said Schnei-ter is being "bullheaded" because he simply "sees it differently." Dolan said the city doesn't want to hurt Pebblebrook's business but has a responsibility to protect residents who live near the eighth hole.Schneiter said he's already spent $40,000 on improvements to the green at the city's request, and argues that lowering the green any more would affect the nearby 13th tee, and create a domino affect that would require the entire course to be rebuilt. Schneiter has reluctantly agreed to increase the height of a fence behind the green from 17 to 23 feet. The city also wants him to add a landscaped buffer.
"It's unnecessary," Schneiter said of lowering the green. "If I could see that it would be safer, better or help anything, I would do it."
City officials don't expect Schneiter's vision to improve anytime soon. But now that it's been narrowed to the eighth green, they say, an amicable solution is at least in focus.