Bid for Golf Course on Landfill Approved : Scholl Canyon: The $3.6-million proposal calls for an 18-hole executive-length course and driving range. A firm originally selected for the project backed out last month.

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday selected a Santa Monica firm to design, build and operate a golf course atop the city’s problem-plagued Scholl Canyon landfill after another firm backed out of the proposal last month.

American Golf Corp. proposes to spend $3.6 million to build an 18-hole executive-length course and driving range on top of the landfill at the eastern end of Glenoaks Boulevard in the San Rafael Hills. The course would be on about 56 acres of the 410-acre landfill.

A nine-hole course on a portion of the site was closed in 1988 after officials discovered potentially explosive levels of methane leaking from the landfill. The city has since installed a new pipeline system to collect the gas produced naturally by the decomposition of trash and debris.

The initial designer, Golf Enterprises of Santa Monica, was selected in January from a dozen bidders. Golf Enterprises proposed to spend $2.8 million to build a new course and pledged to pay the city about $9 million in rental fees over a 30-year lease.

Kim Kochsiek, Golf Enterprises vice president, said Tuesday that his firm decided to back out because of uncertainties over the costs of building a course on top of a landfill. The firm operates 24 golf courses but has no experience in landfill projects, he said.

Although American Golf proposed spending more of its own money to develop the course, it pledged a smaller return to the city: $3.5 million in rental fees over 30 years. The city would receive no fees during the first five years of operation of a new golf course, according to the proposal by American.

The council action Tuesday allows further negotiations on the agreement.

American Golf--which operates 150 courses, including six on top of landfills--is the largest operator of municipal golf courses in the country, said Craig Price, executive vice president. Among the landfill courses are Brookside in Pasadena and Mountain Gate Country Club in Brentwood.

Price said the Scholl Canyon project “is a very, very technical job requiring a lot of expertise. It’s not an easy project.”

Experts hired by the city have said the Scholl Canyon landfill--up to 245 feet deep in some areas--is deeper than most and has had more surface shifting with the decomposition of material below.

The original nine-hole course built on top of the landfill was plagued with problems even before it was opened in 1981. Fairways, greens and a driving range continually shifted as much as 15 feet, and the landscaping was seared by the leaking gas.

Golfers referred to the course as “stinky canyon” because of the constant odor of methane. Still, the course averaged 36,000 rounds of play per year.

The constant shifting caused rigid pipelines in a gas collection system beneath the landfill to clog and break, releasing gas through the surface. The city several years ago installed a new, flexible pipe system at a cost of about $750,000 and plans to eventually use the methane to help generate power for electricity.

Currently, the gas is piped to a nearby active portion of the landfill and burned off by flares.

Meanwhile, the city has been covering over the landfill with about six feet of dirt trucked in from nearby construction projects, said Kerry L. Morford, assistant public works director. The dirt coverage, being compacted as it is laid, is about 80% complete, he said.

Once the negotiations are final, which could take as much as a year, construction of a golf course will take another two years, said Nello Iacono, city director of parks, recreation and community services.

A tennis club operated next to the golf course, also shut down because of the noxious gas leakage in 1988, was reopened two years ago. The 10 courts, restrooms and a reservations office are on a portion of the site that is not over the landfill.