By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

Verdugo Hills Golf Course (VHGC), wedged between La Tuna Canyon and Tujunga Canyon roads, will soon be no more. Local residents and golf enthusiasts have until Dec. 31 to tee off at the facility. After that date the VHGC will be closing its doors.

The course was originally founded and opened by a group of doctors in June 1960 and has served the Crescenta Valley area since. Over the decades the founders of the VHGC passed away. By 2004 ownership of the site had passed on to Snowball West Investments, LP, which had purchased the property from the founders’ heirs for $7.6 million. Within a year plans to redevelop the site into residential units had been announced, setting up a confrontation between many local residents opposing the project and Snowball West.

Subsequently several alternatives for development have been proposed by the group, including developing the VHGC into a “mixed use” site that would include residential, commercial and office spaces.

Michael Hoberman, whose name has been associated with the redevelopment project, said in a phone interview Wednesday that Snowball West has tried to be a good partner to the local community.

“[Snowball West] has kept [VHGC] open as a courtesy,” he assured. “But it loses money.”

He also pointed out that current VHGC employees will be receiving “very generous” severance packages and that a number of them will be kept on for landscaping purposes. According to Hoberman, staff at VHGC numbers at approximately a dozen.

During the interview Hoberman stated that he is only an advisor to Snowball West.

“I am not an owner [of Snowball West], nor am I an official spokesperson,” he clarified.

A website detailing the proposed redevelopment of the VHGC states that Snowball West is named after “the Hoberman family dog.” The website also cited Hoberman as a spokesperson for the investment group in the past. A phone number listed for Snowball West was disconnected.

Hoberman added that Snowball West would be amenable to keeping the site open as a golf course or even selling the property. But no offers have been forthcoming.

“If [concerned local residents] want to save the golf course, the way to do it is to work with the city and the state and other groups, put together a package and figure out a way together to buy it, or buy most of it,” stated a message on the website.

Hoberman reiterated that message by saying that Snowball West has been open to reaching some kind of compromise solution with the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council (STNC), under which jurisdiction the golf course lies. But that it has yet to make any meaningful contact.

“So far the STNC has made no attempts to contact Snowball to work out a deal [on the project] and has not made any suggested conditions for support,” he stated.

It was an allegation firmly denied by Krystee Clark, president of the STNC, who was quick to note that the council has had “quite a bit” of contact with Snowball West.

With the imminent closure of the VHGC now official, Clark expressed trepidation as to how that would affect the surrounding area in the near future.

“I worry that if [the VHGC] closes that [Snowball West] will put up a chain-link fence and just let the place die,” she said. Keeping the site open and running was important as she regards the site as an important “face and gateway” to the community.

“I fear that the grass will just turn brown there.”

These sentiments were echoed by Kaipo Chock, president of the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce (CVCC). As he reminisced about his childhood golf games with his father, Chock said he worried over what would become of the VHGC site.

“[Snowball West] needs to understand how closing that property could affect our community,” he said. “It could potentially bring in squatters and people parking their RVs. It’ll be an eyesore.”

For Karen Zimmerman the main concern with the VHGC’s destiny lay with its proposed development. An 11-year member of the local advocacy group Volunteers Organized In Conserving the Environment (VOICE), she has been among the leaders in the fight to prevent development on the golf course.

“I don’t doubt that [the VHGC] is in the red,” she said. “But traffic, for example, is already a major problem in the Crescenta Valley. You only have to see all the cars congesting the streets in the mornings and evenings. Developing hundreds of residential units is only going to make this problem much worse.”

An environmental impact report (EIR) tallying the potential consequences of development of the VHGC site is set to be released next year. Debate on the site’s future is certain to continue.

“Snowball West is composed of terrific people who care about the environment and community,” reiterated Hoberman. “Again, they would have been and still are willing to work out a deal.”

But some residents’ concerns have yet to be quelled.

“I don’t think that [Snowball West] has considered all the implications of [closing the VHGC],” said Chock. “A lot of people are going to be angry.”

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE