The private 3-hole golf course owned by Jerold Perenchio is before the California Coastal Commission for a permit. The original permit was issued for a park, so the golf course was built illegally. Environmentalists are protesting issuance of a permit for it now. Perenchio’s spin masters are saying that it uses less fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, and fungicide than residential property of the same size would. This defies logic and lacks credibility considering the high maintenance that the greens require. It also contradicts his threat to develop it residentially.
Adding to the insult and injury to the environment is the septic system on the golf course. It is suspected that the drain-field is so close to the groundwater table that polluting effluent gets into the drainage system. That goes into the culvert that leads to the infamous Mystery Drain to the Lagoon. That drain has been clearly identified as a major source of pollution. It also receives drainage from the Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center, Pacific Coast Highway, and Malibu Road.
Mr. Perenchio is also using this as a lever to get the COM (City of Malibu) to build a central sewage treatment plant at public expense to treat the delta area and open the gateway to further development in the Civic Center area. This is what the COM was incorporated to prevent. An acceptable solution would be for a private Perenchio Park for Colony residents with a finger of the Lagoon in it.
Another would only differ in that it could be sold to, and the wetland reclaimed by, civil authorities. They could still call it Perenchio Park.
Grant Neie
Inglewood