Plan for Hill Canyon Golf Course Disputed

Opponents of a proposed golf course to be built in Hill Canyon plan to meet Saturday to express their concerns.

The Hill Canyon Preservation Committee has scheduled a meeting from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Thousand Oaks Regional Library, 1401 E. Janss Road, to discuss the planned 18-hole golf course and recreation area.

Conference organizer Chuck Kunestle, a 30-year Thousand Oaks resident, said there are numerous problems with the project, including financing, feasibility and the effect it will have on the mostly undeveloped canyon.

“The environmental impact is going to be horrendous. They are basically going to rip out a whole canyon,” Kunestle said.

The golf course developers and the city, anticipating the opposition, have included extra time in the development schedule to accommodate delays caused by challenges to the project’s environmental impact report.

“There hasn’t been a golf course started in this county in the last 10 years that hasn’t been sued on the adequacy of the EIR,” said Ed Johnduff, special projects and programs manager for Thousand Oaks.

Preservation committee members say there is inadequate space in the canyon for a golf course and, furthermore, shaky financing will eventually result in Thousand Oaks residents getting stuck with the tab.

“It is one of the few kinds of recreational amenities that can, in fact, support itself and then some,” said Tex Ward, park district general manager.

Johnduff said the project will improve the environment within the canyon. “What we intend to do out there is to improve what is a degraded environmental area. . . . We will enhance what is really natural out there.”

Johnduff said four-wheel vehicles and illegal dumping of trash have damaged the area. Of the 37 oak trees that will be removed, six are already dead and 15 will be replanted. Some 200 new oak trees will be planted.

He also said wetlands in the canyon will increase fourfold and exotic plants will be replaced with natives, which will result in improved water quality downstream.