Hill Canyon Golf Proposal

* Re “Springtime, and the Topic Is Golf,” Ventura County Editorials, April 11.

I object to the proposed Hill Canyon Recreational facility, for the following reasons:

* The proposed golf course would cost the taxpayers of Thousand Oaks more than $16 million.

* The chosen site would remove a natural wetland, which is a vital regional watering hole and breeding area for wildlife.

* It would also mean the loss of rare and endangered plants and animals, as well as the removal of 37 oak trees.

A further negative aspect of this project is that the golf course would increase solid waste to an already overburdened waste plant. The projected fees to play at this course are not within the range of many of our citizens.

The course proposed site is at the lowest elevation in Thousand Oaks, built adjacent to the waste water treatment plant, in a very narrow ridge alongside two creeks that flood regularly in the winter and spring months.

Furthermore, hikers, bikers, nature lovers and equestrians would be sharing this area with golfers and would be endangered by flying objects, namely, golf balls.

This area should remain undeveloped, and I urge you to find another site for this project.

This is our ninth year in Thousand Oaks, and our children go to Meadows Elementary School. There is momentum building against this project, and the voters have long memories. If necessary, we will take to the streets in opposition of this project. Instead, it should be protected as a sanctuary!

MIKE GARAI

Thousand Oaks

*

* I am a student at Cal Lutheran University, studying biology. I am writing in regard to the development of a golf course in Hill Canyon.

To build this golf course, 37 oak trees are going to be cut down along with the other native vegetation: willow, sages and sycamore. The Lang Ranch Dam Project is going to be removing 47 oak trees. Between the two projects Thousand Oaks is losing 84 oak trees--the very oak trees that our city was named after.

Hill Canyon is one of the few wetlands left in California. To build over this wetland with a golf course and move it down toward Santa Rosa Road is a bad idea from an ecological standpoint. The probability of the wetland surviving once transplanted is very slim. History has shown that not many transplanted wetlands survive. The ecology of the new site for the wetland is not the same as the ecology of the site where it is right now, otherwise a wetland would exist there already.

Thousand Oaks already has one golf course, the Los Robles Golf Course. Thousand Oaks does not need another. Perhaps an alternative solution could be made in upgrading the one we already have instead of destroying a habitat that cannot be rebuilt.

JILL K. HOLTON

Thousand Oaks