Clash at Topanga Town Council : Foes of Country Club Blast Antonovich

Topanga Canyon residents trying to block construction of a $100-million country club have charged that Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is helping to keep the project alive despite environmental flaws that should kill the development plan.

Homeowners complained Monday night that the 5th District supervisor has stalled the project to give its developer time to beef up an environmental impact report required by county planning officials.

Antonovich, who heard the allegations while attending a Topanga Town Council meeting Monday night, disputed the charges.

Homeowner unhappiness over the proposed “Montevideo Country Club” development has been growing since March 6, 1980, when the project was initially scheduled to be voted upon by supervisors.

But action was delayed that day by the board. Since then, the case has been postponed 24 more times--the most recent continuance coming two weeks ago when the matter was quietly taken off the board agenda “indefinitely.”

Homeowners complained Monday that the latest action is a violation of a board policy passed last year that was to have prohibited any further delay on the matter.

“We had a policy we believed in and we feel we were let down,” Bob Bates, president of the Topanga Assn. for a Scenic Community told Antonovich.

Neighbor Inge Johnstone emotionally criticized Antonovich for “bending over backwards” for a project that “will rape the land.”

“We’re being steamrollered,” Johnstone said to the applause of a crowd of 125 on hand for the advisory council’s meeting.

Special Treatment Charged

Homeowner Bob Goldberg said residents of the 2,000-home canyon feel the resort project is getting special treatment because its developer and designers have contributed to Antonovich’s election campaigns. “It’s checkbook politics,” Goldberg said.

Antonovich, who acknowledged the contributions, denied a conflict of interest. He said all donations to his county election campaigns and to an ill-fated 1986 try for the Republican Senate nomination have been publicly reported as required by law.

“There have been cases where we’ve voted against contributors,” Antonovich told the crowd. “I don’t see it as a conflict of interest.”

The most recent delay of the country club case was done for the benefit of Topanga Canyon residents, Antonovich asserted.

“We didn’t continue it,” he said. “We rescheduled it so we now have everything on the agenda at one time. It’s a convenience to you.”

County planning staff member John Schwarze said a planning commission hearing on zoning and a master plan amendment for the country club will probably be scheduled for the end of April or the first part of May.

After the commission takes action, the issue will come before the supervisors in August or September, Antonovich said.

Schwarze said the county is still awaiting key environmental information about such things as sewage disposal for the project.