Proposed Golf Course

In “On the Issue” May 20 (“Golf Course at Big Tujunga: Ecology vs. Jobs”), state Sen. Tom Hayden states that the proposed golf course (Red Tail Golf and Equestrian Center in Big Tujunga Canyon) violates state endangered species laws. Actually this golf course project would preserve and protect the endangered slender-horned spineflower and other rare species because the approved city plan requires a 192-acre wildlife habitat preserve to be permanently built adjacent to the golf course, which would occupy 160 acres of Tujunga Wash.

Hayden also indicates that taxpayers would be at risk if there should be flooding. Actually, the city of Los Angeles is held harmless from any liability should there be flooding. The golf course would be built not by Los Angeles but by a lessee private company, Foothill Development Group, using no taxpayer monies.

Golf courses are often built on flood plains because the more desirable locations are reserved for condominiums and apartments. There are golf courses in Palm Springs and Arizona that are successfully located on flood plains due to proper flood engineering.

It is true that the Sunland-Tujunga area is in great need of an economic boost. Environmentalists like Hayden are concerned only about endangered species; they do not consider that people can co-exist with nature and that both will benefit.

MEILING DAI

Sunland

* My family has lived in the same house in Tujunga for more than 40 years, and we want to preserve the natural beauty of the Tujunga Wash and the surrounding areas. We are opposed to the Red Tail golf course development because:

* The Tujunga Wash is one of the city’s most environmentally sensitive areas and one that should be preserved for future generations to enjoy. Tujunga’s natural setting is its primary appeal. It’s the reason we live here.

* Seasonal floods will eventually destroy man-made projects in the wash, and public funds will be constantly drained to protect this ill-conceived private development from flooding season after season.

* We already have a nearby public golf course at Hansen Dam, as well as plans to recover recreational use of the Hansen Dam lake area. Golf courses drain huge amounts of chemicals which may prove damaging to the water in the new lake.

* We dislike the way Foothill Golf Development Group appropriated the “Audubon” name in a misleading campaign to win local support for the project.

* We dislike that the parent company of Foothill Golf allegedly has a lobbyist, Mark Armbruster, who is the environmental affairs commissioner for Mayor Richard Riordan.

* We are backers of the groups that have filed the seven appeals, especially Sierra Club, the real Audubon Society and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

We oppose this development and urge an appeal of the conditional-use permit for construction of a golf course and the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption.

ALLEN PETRINKA

and HELEN PETRINKA

Tujunga