Water No Hazard to Golf Plan : Developers Seek to Build Flood-Proof Course in Tujunga Wash

A Japanese development company has announced plans to build a $20-million, tournament-caliber golf course in the Tujunga Wash, which is periodically overrun by floods.

Steve Timm, director of golf-course development for Cosmo World Corp., said the “L.A. International Club” would be on approximately 280 acres of the wash northeast of the Foothill Freeway in Lake View Terrace.

Timm said Cosmo was expected to close escrow on the proposed site, in the northeast San Fernando Valley, on Monday. He declined to disclose a purchase price, but area real estate brokers involved with the purchase said the corporation already had made a preliminary payment of “several hundred thousand dollars” on the deal.

Timm said the facility would be a “world-class” 500-member private club with a 50,000-square-foot clubhouse. He said he hoped to have the facility finished by the summer of 1989.

He added that negotiations already were under way for the course to be considered as an alternative site for the Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament, which is now held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.

“This is going to be a quality course that would fit easily in a list of the 100 best courses in the United States,” Timm said.

The barren property, now covered with rocks and wild vegetation, is owned by the estate of Peter J. Akmadzich, who lived in Tujunga, and CalMat Inc., a gravel-mining operation.

The golf course would replace a controversial business-residential development that had been proposed for the area during the last several years. That project --which combined an industrial park, about 500 homes and three to five commercial buildings--collapsed earlier this year because of community opposition.

The project’s co-developer, Donald Cunningham, had planned to construct a levee to control floodwaters around the development, but his critics feared it would have been inadequate. Government agencies and neighborhood groups were also wary about the possible environmental effects of the project and its effect on the surrounding residential community.

The option that Cunningham and his partner, Richard Barcley, had to purchase and develop the property expired a few months ago, Timm said. He said he had been searching for a site to build a golf course when area real estate brokers contacted him.

Timm said the golf course would be designed to accommodate floodwaters by creating a channel system to divert them. The golf course would undergo no damage and the system would not contain concrete structures, he added.

“With our project, there is no flood problem,” he said.

So far, community activists have supported the proposal, although some want to learn the specifics of the development.

“This is like manna on the water,” said Sylvia Gross, land-use chairman of the Sunland-Tujunga Assn. of Residents. “This could shoot property values around here up 200% or 300%. This community has needed something like this for a long time.”

But Gross, along with Jennie Klein, president of the Shadow Hills Property Owners, said they were worried about a hotel that Cosmo executives say may be built on the facility grounds.

“We really have to see what’s going on with that before we make a final decision,” Klein said.

Meetings Planned

Timm said there were no immediate plans to build a hotel, but that it might be considered in the future. Meetings between Timm and neighborhood groups are planned during the next few months.

Timm said the property is perfect for a golf course because it is on flat land, near a freeway, and accessible from Burbank Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

Cosmo has built more than 15 golf courses in Japan, France and Hawaii, Timm said. He described the firm as “a multinational conglomerate.”

The course would be designed by golf architect Pete Dye, who has built several courses, including one course in La Quinta, 30 miles southeast of Palm Springs, that is considered by some golf experts to be the toughest in the country.