JUST AS $6,000-a-day penalties were set to hit the owner of a private, three-hole golf course in Pebble Beach, a Monterey County judge ordered the California Coastal Commission not to enforce its ruling that the course be destroyed.
The order, signed by Superior Court Judge Robert O'Farrell, came as Robert Feduniak, a retired Wall Street executive, filed a lawsuit against the coastal commission for deciding the lush course in his front yard has to be replaced with native plants. It's a legal battle Feduniak -- an expert on commodities trading and a well known high-stakes poker player -- expects to win, according to his lawyer, Doc Etienne.
"He's very determined," Etienne said.
Last July, the coastal commission told Feduniak he had to remove the golf course because a previous owner of the property, Bert Bonanno, agreed to create a "conservation easement" on the land in 1983 in order to get a permit to build a new house. The house was finished in 1985, and the course was built soon after, according to legal documents. Three years ago, Bonanno sold the property to Feduniak for $13 million.
"I was highly motivated to buy the property because of the lovely, three-hole course at the front," Feduniak said in a deposition submitted to O'Farrell. He said he was unaware the course might not be legal, and he was "completely astonished" when he found out last December he was the target of a coastal commission enforcement action. Because the small golf course has existed for more than 17 years in full view of everyone on 17 Mile Drive, "it would be unjust and inequitable for me to be required to remove it," Feduniak said.
Instead, he is willing to contribute up to $500,000 for "off-site mitigation" elsewhere in Pebble Beach. The president of the Del Monte Forest Foundation, Jeff Craig, said the contribution would be welcome.
"It isn't up to us to decide what is done with the small golf course," Craig said. "But, personally, I think it would be more worthwhile to restore existing natural habitat, rather than manufacture habitat on Feduniak's property." His group has pinpointed two sites -- Indian Village and Pescadero Canyon -- where Feduniak's half-million dollars could be well spent.
But the coastal commission rejected Feduniak's offer.
"The current owners didn't put that thing in there, but there's no way we can simply say that's too bad and let them keep it," the coastal commission's enforcement officer, Sheila Ryan, told the San Jose Mercury News.
According to the commission, Feduniak's property is ESHA -- environmentally sensitive habitat area -- for which the Coastal Act requires protection.
But Etienne maintains that determination was based on flimsy evidence that won't hold up in court. Before Bonanno built the house and the golf course, the lot was overrun with invasive, non-native Hottentot fig iceplant, just as most of the neighboring properties are even today, Etienne said. Furthermore, the original coastal permit for the property does not say the land is ESHA, a review of court documents showed.
The coastal commission also said the golf course must be removed because it isn't "visually compatible" with surrounding areas. But Feduniak maintains that his small course, which is right next to the 13th Fairway of the ultra-exclusive Cypress Point golf course, merely "continues the golf course/ocean interplay occurring . . . along this stretch of coastline."
The commission gave Feduniak until Sept. 21 to stop watering his elaborate landscape and prepare a plan to "restore and revegetate" it, or face fines of $6,000 per day -- a deadline now moot because of the temporary restraining order issued by O'Farrell. The judge scheduled a hearing Oct. 17 to decide whether to continue his order until a trial can be held on the merits of Feduniak's suit.