Key Permit Denied for Golf Course : Development: Army Corps of Engineers says Japanese firm’s project in Big Tujunga Wash would jeopardize rare plant.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday denied a permit crucial to a Japanese company’s bid to build a championship golf course in scenic Big Tujunga Wash, a rugged area identified as one of Los Angeles’ most environmentally sensitive sites.

Opponents of the $50-million, 355-acre project, including state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), hailed the decision by Col. R. L. VanAntwerp, district engineer, to oppose the project on the grounds that it would jeopardize the existence of the slender-horned spineflower, a tiny plant listed as an endangered species.

“We have determined that, on balance, your proposal is contrary to the public interest,” VanAntwerp wrote to Satoru Suzuki, an executive with Cosmo World Corp., the development company.

In his denial, VanAntwerp also stated that the golf course project “would eliminate at least 120 acres of alluvial fan sage scrub habitat, a plant community the California Department of Fish and Game considers the most threatened in Southern California.”

The Army Corps of Engineers had a key decision-making role in the matter because the proposed golf course would have encroached on a stream, which is protected under federal law. Rugged Big Tujunga Wash tumbles out of the San Gabriel Mountains at Sunland on its way to containment at the huge Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace. The area affected by Wednesday’s decision is a boulder-strewn flood plain east of Foothill Boulevard at Sunland.

Although the Army Corps of Engineers letter left open the possibility that Cosmo or another owner could come back with a new, more environmentally sensitive proposal, most observers believed the decision was a fatal blow.

Attorney Bill Eick of Shadow Hills, an activist who had fought the project, said he was “very pleased” by the decision.

Katz said he believed the decision should disabuse the developer of any idea that his property can be developed commercially.

“If they can’t build a golf course on the site, then they certainly can’t build much else there,” Katz said. A golf course, he reasoned, was about the least obtrusive kind of development for the wash.

The assemblyman said it was time for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to renew its efforts to acquire the property.

Katz estimated that the decision should make it easier and cheaper to acquire the property as parkland. Stripped of its development potential, the land is worth less and thus could be purchased at a lower price.

“The developer’s position is significantly weakened,” Katz said.

“It seems to me that the company could reap a lot of public good will and some tax advantages by donating the land to a parks agency,” he said.

Officials with Cosmo World--which has sought since the late 1980s to develop a golf course rival to the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades on the land it owned in the wash--could not be reached for comment, nor could land-use attorneys for the company.

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A year ago, the exasperated developer, with the advice of Orange County attorney Hugh Hewitt, threatened to invoke a little known state law and remove the spineflower population from the wash so it could proceed with its golf course plans. That proposal triggered an outcry and a slew of counter-threats by state and local authorities. Eventually, the developer backed down.

Jim Peterson of Sunland, a member of a business group that had supported Cosmo World’s project, decried the engineer corps’ decision, saying it was “silly” and would deny the northeast San Fernando Valley a chance for economic development.

“This community needed an economic shot in the arm,” Peterson said.