Course demolition would harm area

February 25, 2011

A recent letter regarding the Verdugo Hills Golf Course suggests demolition of the golf course would create all kinds of retail jobs (“Close that open space and put people to work,” Feb. 22).

This is not true. The proposed project, 229 four- and five-bedroom houses, would create construction jobs, not long-term retail.

The writer may also be unaware the city of Los Angeles has already approved 223 houses less than a mile west of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course. In 2005, the L.A. City Council OK’d Canyon Hills/Whitebird, a large housing project in the undeveloped canyons and hillsides adjacent to La Tuna Canyon Road and the Foothill (210) Freeway. The project entrance will be constructed off of La Tuna Canyon Road near the westbound freeway onramp.

Add the proposed 229 houses on the golf course to Canyon Hills’s 223 units, and that brings the total to more than 450 new houses. Multiply that figure by two or three vehicles per unit and Paul Carney might better understand one of the other reasons many in our foothill communities want the Verdugo Hills Golf Course preserved for recreation — something Southland cities already find in short supply.

Karen Keehne Zimmerman

La Crescenta

Editor's note: Zimmerman is a member of Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment and the Sunland-Tujunga Alliance. Sunland-Tujunga Alliance.

Letter was awfully short-sighted

I read with utter disbelief the Feb. 22 letter by Paul D. Carney titled “Close that open space and put people to work.”

How anyone could have such a short-sighted opinion is beyond me. Carney, I invite you to visit the Verdugo Hills Golf Course on a Saturday or Sunday and see all the “nobodys” that don't care about the course. These “nobodys” range from kids who are just a little taller than their golf clubs to octogenarians who still relish the game.

And then there are all the “nobodys” in the Glendale-Crescenta Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment who are leading the Save the Golf Course effort. These “nobodys” have held fundraisers, put up signs and written numerous letters to government officials to glean support, among other efforts.

And, please don't forget our Los Angeles County supervisor, Mike Antonovich, another “nobody” who has pledged $1.7 million in the hope that a coalition of government entities can purchase the course.

Judy Seelig

La Crescenta

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