Developer Rejects Offer to Buy Tujunga Wash Land

A developer planning to create a golf course in Big Tujunga Wash has rejected a $3.5-million offer for the environmentally sensitive land made earlier this week by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state parklands agency.

In a letter sent to members of the Los Angeles City Council, Mark Armbruster, an attorney representing Foothill Golf Development Corp., said the bid was too low and the corporation still wants the council to approve permits for the golf course.

“Foothill is not interested in selling the property to the conservancy, much less at this price, and therefore still desires your approval of the project as proposed,” he wrote.

The City Council had delayed a vote on construction permits for the golf course project to give the conservancy a chance to try to buy the land.

The project will return to the council Tuesday for final approval.

The rejection letter formally reiterated the developer’s position, voiced earlier in the week, said an aide to City Councilman Richard Alarcon, in whose district the land is located.

Paul Edelman, a deputy division chief of the conservancy, was unavailable for comment late Friday.

The wash site is owned by Cosmo World, a Japanese company that has tried for a decade to acquire development permits; the 18-hole Red Tail Golf Course would be built by Foothill Golf Development.

The project has been opposed by environmental groups, including the conservancy, that call for the preservation of Big Tujunga Wash as one of the country’s last remaining habitats of the endangered slender-horned spineflower.

This week, the conservancy made the offer to buy the 352-acre preserve. But a spokesman for the developer dismissed the offer immediately, saying it would not even cover what the developer has already spent on designing and planning the project.

Armbruster has said the offer was surprising, considering that the conservancy had in the past considered offering between $10 million and $12 million--offers that Cosmo World had said would be rejected.

The conservancy conceded that the offer was probably too low to interest Cosmo World but pointed out that the organization is “prohibited by law from offering more than the fair market value.”

The conservancy obtained an appraisal of $3.5 million by Malibu-based CAP Realty Advisors, which evaluated the property based on its use as a golf course. It compared the land to six other properties in the Los Angeles Basin with similar characteristics.