STUDIO CITY : Golf Course Denied Conditional Permit

A city zoning official has denied the Studio City Golf Course a conditional use permit, noting that while he feels the operation is a welcome swath of green in the otherwise urban area, he has no choice but to deny the request until legal questions surrounding the course’s lease agreement are resolved.

“I would have liked to approve the permit,” said Assistant Los Angeles Zoning Administrator Horace Tramel. “Partially on the advice of the city attorney, I denied the request.”

A clause in the lease between Studio City Golf and Tennis and the Weddington Investment Partnership--which owns the 17-acre site--has become the sticking point in the struggle over the land.

First signed in 1958, the 50-year lease states that it will become null and void if the course does not have a conditional use permit. The course’s permit expired in 1985, and operators failed to seek a new one.

When the Weddington partners learned just this spring that the permit had expired, they sought to evict the golf course and sell or lease the land at a higher rate. Under the original lease, the course pays the Weddington partners just $1,000 a month for the prime piece of real estate, a deal partner Guy Weddington McCreary has called “miserable.”

Though the parties have met on at least one occasion to try to renegotiate the lease, both sides said Monday a settlement appears unlikely, and that who controls the land will probably be decided by a judge.

“I am not optimistic that the parties can reach a new lease agreement,” said attorney Larry Iser of Century City, who represents the golf course.

McCreary said there are no longer plans to develop the site, and if the partnership prevails in court, another golf course operator would probably be brought in, although a new lease could still be offered to Studio City Golf and Tennis.

A hearing will be held Nov. 10, in which the golf course will ask the judge to rule in its favor without a trial, Iser said. The trial is scheduled Nov. 15.