Facts on Montevideo Project Size

Two recent letters (May 8) attacked both Al Martinez and the Topanga Canyon Town Council for positions opposing the proposed Montevideo Country Club, claiming our opposition is based on inaccuracies.

Mr. Martinez is quite capable of eloquently defending himself as he feels necessary, and his well-crafted language makes his column always interesting, no matter his point of view.

The Topanga Canyon Town Council has spent hundreds of hours being very certain that our facts are correct and that we are keeping up with the latest changes in the proposal. The project proposal that regional planning staff has been directed to prepare a final environmental impact report for is as follows: 224 three- and four-bedroom single-family homes, a 106-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course, 17 lighted tennis courts, a 140-horse equestrian center, a 17,000-square-foot shopping center plus gas station and a sewage treatment facility.

Perhaps Ms. Files and Mr. Robinson simply miss the point. Ms. Files fails to mention the hotel. Mr. Robinson calls it “a few homes.” Were this project designed in accordance with the general plan and the area plan for this site, there would be approximately 100 homes, and this project would have been built long ago. The Town Council supports both the area plan and the general plan. Our testimony on April 27 before regional planning was based upon those documents.

We have not lied or held secret meetings and are not a cabal. All Town Council meetings are open to anyone, unlike those of the Topanga Advisory Council, which met recently in Woodland Hills, barring Topanga residents and the press.

Were our opposition based on lies, we could not have coordinated and presented regional planning with 150 pages of testimony called the “best community presentation ever.”

The Topanga Canyon Town Council has earned the respect of community members and government officials at all levels in the last 10 years. That respect would not have been given if we were a small secretive organization dealing in emotionalism and untruths.

MARTY CORBETT

Topanga

Corbett is a board member of the Topanga Canyon Town Council.