Martinez and Montevideo

Al Martinez’s vitriolic humor in his column on the Montevideo Country Club (April 13) was supposed to be funny, I guess. I find it outrageous.

Martinez espouses the deliberate distortions spread by the Topanga Town Council, including his reference to “condos and tightly housed little neighborhoods” and “concrete the canyon.” Their whole cabal against the project is based on such lies.

The Montevideo Country Club plan envisages wide-open spaces, with its 18-hole golf course. Several thousand trees will be planted. Lakes and streams will run through the site, a haven for wildlife, a barrier to brush fires and a vista of beauty that accommodates growth. There will be equestrian trails, tennis courts and so on.

Instead of the hundreds of wall-to-wall condos, the likes of which adorn so many hillsides around the San Fernando Valley, spread through the acreage around the golf course will be custom-designed single-family homes.

Martinez’s mouthing the vituperations of Topanga Town Council, or what he calls the “Bowel Section” of Topanga, and only their fabricated distortions, is not ethical reporting.

The gang of the “Bowel Section,” otherwise geographically identified as “Lower Topanga” (with their town council), live for the most part five miles away from the proposed project. By contrast, we of Viewridge, who live directly adjacent to it, strongly support the project.

I, too, love open spaces. With the Montevideo Country Club, we will retain the “open space” concept. If the Montevideo Country Club is rejected, we may face the “Concrete the Canyon” concept he attributes to this beautifully conceived project.

We of Viewridge Estates about two years ago were literally in a ring of fire. The whole site to be developed, with its dense dry brush, fed a roaring fire that jumped Topanga Canyon Boulevard into our residential area twice. With the Montevideo Country Club, and its greenbelt provided by the golf course, the threat of this brush-fed fire will be eliminated!

Yes, Mr. Martinez: no brush, no fire.

YVONNE S. FILES

Topanga