Firm Scraps Plans for Golf Course in Topanga : Development: The proposal also included a housing project. Banks were reluctant to provide loans because of strong community opposition.

Representatives of the Japan-based Tohshin Co. say the firm will not proceed with plans for a controversial golf course and housing project in Topanga Canyon because obstacles to the project have deterred lenders.

Yuji Kanda, the general manager of Tohshin Co.’s California office, said Tuesday that company officials have decided not to buy the 257-acre Montevideo Country Club site from developer Christopher Wojciechowski, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection about a year ago.

The site is along the west side of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, across from the Viewridge subdivision and about three miles south of Woodland Hills.

Japanese banks were reluctant to finance the purchase because of the strong community opposition, and because five county permits are still needed before construction can begin, said a Tohshin consultant who advised the company on the purchase.

Brad Godshall, an attorney representing Montevideo Country Club Inc., refused to comment on Tohshin’s decision. A bankruptcy court hearing is scheduled today to discuss “a potential sale,” he said, but he declined to disclose the potential purchaser.

Tohshin backed out of the deal late last month, the evening before the purchasing agreement was scheduled to be ratified by the federal bankruptcy court with jurisdiction over Wojciechowski’s assets.

“If it was a slam-dunk deal it would be all right, but to go through all that hassle, the numbers didn’t make sense,” said the Tohshin consultant, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified by name.

The sale had been contingent on Wojciechowski’s obtaining five Los Angeles County permits for the project, including a conditional-use permit, a zoning permit, an area plan amendment and an oak tree removal permit.

Tohshin was planning to pay $22 million for the land and an additional $14 million when the necessary permits were obtained, the consultant said.

He said the county was probably going to require the developer to improve Topanga Canyon Road and install a sewage system as a condition for approval, which he said would cut into potential profits.

“The costs were going to be quite substantial,” he said. “The whole project is barely economically feasible.”

Tohshin wanted to develop a golf course that could be certified as a tournament level course by the Professional Golfers’ Assn. But several golf course designers advised the company that the proposed course probably would not meet that standard, the consultant said.

Wojciechowski’s plan to turn the rolling, oak-tree dotted meadow into the premier private recreation project in the Santa Monica Mountains has been a long-running controversy in Topanga. Some residents supported the project--which had called for a hotel, a museum and a shopping mall--saying it would bring services and permanent open space to the canyon, but others adamantly opposed altering the natural beauty of the land.

Opponents waged a fierce battle in county hearing rooms. County supervisors ultimately rejected plans for a hotel and shopping mall and forced the developer to scale back the housing.

When Wojciechowski filed for bankruptcy last year, many Topanga residents hoped the project was dead. But announcements that Tohshin planned to purchase the site and proceed with the golf course and housing rekindled the opposition.

In an effort to deter Tohshin from buying the land, members of the Topanga Assn. for a Scenic Community deluged the company with postcards. According to Bob Bates, president of the organization, the preprinted postcards said many Topanga residents were staunchly opposed.

Bates said about 1,000 people sent postcards to the company’s Los Angeles office.

Kanda said the company was surprised at the amount of opposition. But the Tohshin consultant said the opposition merely “tipped the scales.”

The primary reason for the decision, however, was simply that Japanese banks were “not that enthusiastic” about the project, the consultant said.