The Downside of Hill Canyon Course

Re: your interview with eco-golf course designer Michael Hurdzan and the proposed Hill Canyon golf course (“Nature and golfers can coexist, course designer believes,” Dec. 14):

The response to proposals like this depends on how things are framed. If we are to leave healthy ecosystems like Hill Canyon to the next generation, to respect the needs of other species, to live, work and play next to and within it, then even so-called eco-golf courses can not coexist with nature. We must reframe proposals in terms of systems, whether ecological, policy making or economic, if we are to restore, protect and preserve our common future.

First, you were inaccurate in stating that reclaimed waste water from the adjacent Hill Canyon treatment plant will keep the turf green. Unless our city representatives convince the State Water Resources Board otherwise, all imported water will be used.

Second, the course and the three-story club house/banquet facility and 150 homes overlooking it will destroy a part of an ecosystem that local rare and endangered plants and animals depend on. Hurdzan believes “critter” populations will increase and will just wait to use the area at night when humans are done with it. Yeah, right. Forget about an animal’s need to hunt during daylight hours, the effects of sprinklers and chemical runoff, etc.

Hurdzan said that “this project will allow many people to experience the beauty of this canyon who otherwise would never venture out there.” Why? Isn’t hiking and playing around in the hills fun? Are some council members and members of our community afraid of the natural world, see it as ugly or need to be tamed? Hasn’t Hurdzan ever played Frisbee golf, seeing the natural terrain as a course, using a Frisbee as a ball and a tree as a hole?

If Hill Canyon is tainted by motorcycle riders and beer bottles, as Councilwoman Judy Lazar has stated elsewhere, then let’s clean it up and restore the greens.

With all the negative impacts of this course of action, what seems to be driving this plan is the green--sales tax revenue. However, as planned, the golf course driving range will be parallel to the sludge (human waste) beds at the treatment plant that dry in the sun. Apparently, millions of dollars will be spent both for machines to treat the waste and to have it trucked out every few days instead of a few times a year.

That money could be used to restore Hill Canyon’s beauty and to create a more sustainable economy that doesn’t destroy the ecology. In fact, city surveys done every five years show that people move here and stay here because of the rural atmosphere. Hiking high up along the Los Robles Trail, one can see that Thousand Oaks is auto- and high energy-dependent suburban sprawl--with the jammed-together, condo-like homes next to the proposed golf course a recent example.

Do private property rights demand servicing such short sightedness? If the Hill Canyon proposal went to a vote of the public with all the details laid out, it would tee people off and not be supported.

Let’s work with our council and stay involved.

PAUL HERZOG

Thousand Oaks