Bid to Evict Golf Course Still Alive

In a case being watched closely by a host of San Fernando Valley golfers, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Monday refused to throw out a lawsuit that seeks to evict the operators of Studio City’s only golf course.

The Weddington Investment Partnership, owners of the 17.2-acre urban plot on which Studio City Golf and Tennis sits, filed suit earlier this summer in an attempt to evict the operators, claiming their lease expired in 1985. In response, the golf course filed a legal paper known as a demure, which requests the suit be dismissed.

Judge Joseph Kalin overruled the demure and scheduled the case for jury trial Oct. 21.

The dispute centers around a 39-year-old lease that charges course operators rent of just $1,000 a month for the prime real estate in the heart of Studio City. In May, the Weddington Partnership discovered that the conditional-use permit at the nine-hole course had expired in 1985. The lawsuit claims that the bargain-basement lease was nullified upon expiration of the permit.

The owners have since sought to evict the course operators and sell or lease the property to a new tenant at what co-owner Guy Weddington McCreary has called a “fair market price.”

A hearing was held in August as the golf course sought a new conditional-use permit to continue operating, but Associate Zoning Administrator Horace Tramel declined to rule on the request until the dispute over the lease was resolved. To even apply for a permit, he said, the golf course had to be either the owner or legal tenant of the property, and it was unclear whether the golf course was either.

While the case is working its way toward the courtroom, a flicker of an out-of-court resolution came out of a closed-door meeting two weeks ago, according to attorneys from both sides. Representatives of the golf course and the Weddington partnership discussed renegotiating the original lease.

“The parties did have one negotiating session, which was not attended by lawyers,” said Los Angeles attorney Jerald Gale , who represents the Weddington side. “I would anticipate that there would probably be more.”