Supervisors Revive Debate on Topanga Country Club Plan : Development: Kenneth Hahn does an about-face and revives a 12-year land issue. The Town Council alleges back-room politics.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, on Tuesday revived consideration of a proposed country club development in Topanga Canyon, breathing new life into one of the longest zoning disputes in county history.

The 12-year battle over the proposed Montevideo Country Club and an adjoining housing tract had appeared to be over just two weeks ago, when the board denied county permits needed for the project to proceed.

But Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who voted against the project April 18, praised it on Tuesday and joined Antonovich and Supervisor Deane Dana in voting to reconsider it.

“I reconsidered,” Hahn said after a lengthy and often heated debate over the project. “I thought it was a good plan.”

But members of the Topanga Town Council, who have long complained that the project would level rustic ridgelines, charged that back-room politics and developer contributions influenced the reversal.

According to public records, developer George R. Wojciechowski gave more than $66,000 to county supervisors between 1986 and 1990, with nearly half of it going to Antonovich.

“It’s really checkbook politics,” complained Bob Goldberg, a council member.

Some Topanga residents speculated that Hahn’s about-face was a political favor to Antonovich and Dana, a charge Hahn testily denied.

“I came to this in my own mind,” he told reporters.

Wojciechowski also denied lobbying Hahn.

“I didn’t do anything,” the developer said. “Mr. Hahn is a smart politician and he knows what he’s doing.”

The board’s action was not a complete victory for Wojciechowski.

At Supervisor Ed Edelman’s urging, the board voted to return the project to the Regional Planning Commission for a public hearing, a time-consuming process that provides Topanga residents with opportunities to continue their attacks on it.

The Montevideo project as proposed in 1978 called for 257 houses, a golf course and hotel in the scenic Summit Valley region of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Under pressure from Topanga Canyon residents, the plan has been scaled back, most recently to 97 homes and a golf course

The hotel was cut from the plan years ago, but Hahn twice cited the hotel Tuesday as an amenity which made the project valuable and a benefit to the Topanga Canyon community.

In 1988, the supervisors indicated support for a 125-house Montevideo development.

But with Antonovich in Sacramento last month, the board voted 3-1 to deny county permits to the development.

Hahn joined liberal Supervisors Edelman and Gloria Molina in rejecting the project, with Dana dissenting.

Antonovich called the denial an abuse of government authority and said the board was “trying to usurp the rights” of private property owners.

He said the project would benefit the area by constructing, among other things, a fire break and sewer system.

Antonovich also said the developer repeatedly scaled back his plans to meet the concerns of residents and county planners.

But Edelman and Molina also said the project did not comply with the area’s planning guidelines, a charge disputed by Wojciechowski.

“Mr. Edelman doesn’t know a damn thing that he’s talking about,” he said.

Antonovich was the first to suggest referring the project to the planning commissioners, but only for review and comment before the supervisors’ meeting on May 21.

Edelman then pointedly asked if Antonovich seriously wanted the planning commissioners to study the project “or are you trying to ramrod it through?”

Hahn, who had backed Antonovich earlier in the meeting, then sided with Edelman, saying he wanted the Regional Planning Commission to conduct a full public hearing.

After the meeting, Hahn was asked why he had opposed the same project two weeks earlier.

Referring to Edelman, with whom he often sides, he said, “Maybe I was following his leadership on this.”