Council Panel Backs Tujunga Golf Course

Swayed by Councilman Joel Wachs’ first public endorsement, a Los Angeles City Council panel voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a controversial plan to put an 18-hole golf course in Big Tujunga Wash.

The council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee recommended that the full council approve the $12-million proposal by Glendale-based Foothills Golf Development Group. The council is scheduled to take up the issue July 8.

Wachs said it was still possible that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state parklands agency, could negotiate a purchase of the 350 acres targeted for development. The conservancy offered last month to buy the land, but an attorney for the development group said it was probably not for sale.

“Unless the conservancy can put its money where its mouth is,” Wachs told the committee, “I think this is clearly the best proposal I’ve seen in the 11 years we’ve worked on this project. It balances the interests between those who would like to preserve the wash in its entirety and the majority of the community that believes [the golf course] will provide a greatly needed improvement.”

Because the city Planning Commission approved the plan last fall, opponents would need to persuade 10 council members to vote against it.

Wachs does not sit on the planning committee, but his district includes Big Tujunga Canyon and he has listened to years of debate over the fate of the land.

“I just tried to do the best I could,” he said. “Frankly, more people here will be happy than not. I’m a little less happy. I’ve struggled with this.”

Committee chairman and San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson, alluding to the controversy over the plan, told Wachs: “I’m glad it’s you and not me that’s in this tough position.” But, he continued, “I think there’s something in here for everybody.”

Plans call for the 354-acre parcel to include horse trails and 190 acres of open space and a preserve for the endangered slender-horned spineflower, which thrives along the wash.

After the panel’s decision, attorney Mark Armbruster, who represents the developers, called the proposal “the most environmentally sensitive golf course in Southern California.”

The president of the development firm, David Hueber, added: “It’s even going to have a hitching post where people can tie up their horses and go play some golf or have a drink.”

The decision was applauded by dozens of golf course supporters, many of them neighbors who contend that gang members and vagrants have spread trash and graffiti throughout the wash. They toted blown-up color photographs of tires strewn about the wash and rocks bearing profane graffiti.

“This is the only thing I’ve seen that’s going to do the right thing with this land. Right now, it’s a disaster area,” said Elaine Brown, who wore a large red-and-white sticker urging a “Yes!” vote. “Not only that,” she said, but a shortage of places to play is causing “a terrible crunch with people trying to get on golf courses.”

Leeona Klippstein, environmental coordinator for the Spirit of the Sage Council, said property owners were trying to get developers to clean up a mess they are responsible for--at the expense of plant life and American Indian land. Her group contends that the wash contains Native American burials and the remains of their villages, which archeologists support.

She blasted what she called the city’s “idea that there can be a ‘win-win’ in this situation when so much has been lost.”

Agreed Lisa Oshiro, staff attorney for California Indian Legal Services: “This is going to allow for the continued destruction of [remains of] native villages.”

The council’s discussion was scheduled for July to allow the conservancy time to try to negotiate a purchase of the land, committee members said.