Golf course in county’s plans

GLENDALE — Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich has committed $3.4 million in county funds for two proposed La Tuna Canyon land acquisitions, including $1.7 million for the Verdugo Hills Golf Course property, which is slated to be developed with 229 town homes.

The commitment gives the first semblance of financial credibility to a proposal floated largely by community activists that imagines the county, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the cities of Los Angeles and Glendale pitching in funds to jointly purchase and preserve the Tujunga golf course.

The property, located in Los Angeles, is situated at a jurisdictional crossroads less than a mile from Glendale and about a mile from unincorporated La Crescenta — grounds that each municipality has a stake in the course’s preservation, said Richard Toyon, co-founder of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course Committee, which formed earlier this year to push the shared purchase proposal.

The other property targeted for acquisition by Antonovich is a 73-acre swath owned by the Bagdasarian Family Partnership, which straddles La Tuna Canyon Boulevard and is a quarter-mile from the Verdugo Hills Golf Course. Both of Antonovich’s commitments come from Proposition A funds, approved by voters in 1992 to improve parks and recreational facilities.

The Bagdasarian Family Partnership property is estimated to be worth about $2.7 million, and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel is pursing additional state and county Proposition K funds to cover the $1-million difference, Greuel’s office said. Proposition K was passed by voters in Los Angeles in 1996, and created a 30-year citywide assessment district meant to generate $25 million a year in funds for the improvement, construction and maintenance of city parks and recreation facilities, and the acquisition of land for open space.

But because Proposition K funds are available only for open-space acquisitions, that $1 million could not be directed toward preserving the golf course, Greuel said.

“I’ve made preserving open space a priority, especially in that area,” she said. “I spent over $3 million over the last four years in that area through applications to various state and county sources. Unfortunately, we are constrained by financial restrictions as well as legal restrictions, and those same monies are not necessarily available for the purchase of golf courses.”