Antonovich Urges Board to Reconsider Topanga Country Club Plan

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on Tuesday called on the other supervisors to reconsider their denial last week of a building permit for the Montevideo Country Club project in Topanga Canyon, describing their action as a “complete travesty of justice.”

Antonovich said he could not understand why three supervisors had rejected a scaled-down proposal for 97 houses and a golf course when the board had indicated support in 1988 for a 125-house development.

He said the controversial project, which has divided Topanga Canyon residents for 12 years, would actually “protect people in that area” by providing new water and sewer systems and a firebreak in the form of a moist golf course.

Topanga opponents of the project said they were outraged by Antonovich’s action, accusing him of being blinded by the more than $30,000 in political contributions he has received since 1986 from Montevideo developer Christopher R. Wojciechowski.

“We’re furious,” Topanga resident Marty Brastow said. “To me, this is just blatant checkbook politics.”

Supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to reconsider the Montevideo development and, if they decide to do so, will set a date for another vote on the project.

But it remained unclear whether Antonovich would be able to break the three-vote liberal majority that rejected a permit for Montevideo after a nearly two-hour hearing Thursday. Antonovich missed the hearing because he was out of town.

The liberal supervisors--Ed Edelman, Kenneth Hahn and Gloria Molina--sided with environmentalists who said the project’s extensive earth grading would irreparably damage the semi-rural area. Supervisor Deane Dana was the lone supporter.

Antonovich said Tuesday that he did not yet have any agreement for a vote change, but hoped that Edelman would change his mind. Edelman gained the Topanga area and most of the San Fernando Valley through the same court-ordered redistricting that brought Democrat Molina to the board on March 8, ending a decade of conservative control.

On Tuesday, he said he was surprised by Antonovich’s action and had no intention of changing his vote. “We already heard this case,” Edelman said.

But some Topanga opponents of the project said they were more concerned about Hahn, who frequently favors development. Hahn could not be reached for comment.

“Who knows with Kenny?” Brastow said. “That’s what worries us.”

Wojciechowski said he had attended Tuesday’s board meeting intending to make a speech asking for the reconsideration himself.

Wojciechowski also said he is trying to schedule meetings with supervisors to explain why he believes their denial was illegal and unfair. He is basing his arguments largely on the board’s August, 1988, meeting, he said, when supervisors agreed to approve the country club and houses if 11 conditions were met.

Although Wojciechowski acknowledged he did not meet all 11 conditions, he pointed out that he actually exceeded some of them by offering to build fewer houses and delete an equestrian center and a day-care center, both of which supervisors asked him only to scale back.

“Something has been screwed up and we need to set it right and get it back on track,” Wojciechowski said.