15 June 2007Leonard Doyle
Clint Eastwood, the Hollywood actor and director turned smalltown mayor, and a development grouphave been denied permission to cut down more than 15,000 rare pine trees and build a private golf course on California's Monterey peninsula.
One of America's most-loved natural landscapes, where ocean breakers roll on to a shoreline dotted with pines, the peninsula is the backdrop of countless photographs and tourist postcards. Wind-blown and often mist-shrouded, it is a must-see spot for many visitors to the West Coast of America. Viewed from a distance it appears to be a pristine primeval forest, one of only five stands of Monterey pine left in existence. But appearances are deceptive, as the forest, which is accessible only by a 17-mile private toll road around the rugged coastline, has already been chopped up for development, with about 3,000 expansive homes and no less than eight private golf courses being built there.
Eastwood, who lives in Monterey and was once mayor of nearby Carmel town, was determined to build yet another private course. Designed by the golfing great Arnold Palmer, the 18-hole links course would have incorporated a driving range and an equestrian centre. There would also have been 60 apartments and two luxury hotels - the Inn at Spanish Bay and the Lodge at Pebble Beach - which had already pre-sold to investors. The course would have been carved out of the 150 acres of native Monterey pine forest that still remain around the other eight golf courses. It would have destroyed the habitat of an endangered orchid, Yadon's piperia, and removed the wetlands that are so important for the region's wildlife, such as the California red-legged frog, made famous by Mark Twain's story about jumping frog contests and already threatened with extinction.
The reverse is a bitter pill for the developers. They have been determined to get a return on their investment since buying the Pebble Beach Company about 20 years ago from its Japanese owners for $820m. In so doing they have used every trick in the book to overcome the objections of environmentalists and local residents, ultimately failing after a decision by the California Coastal Commission.
"In my 20 years of attending the coastal commission's meetings, this is the most egregious example of development trying to circumvent the Coastal Act," Sara Wan, one of the commissioners, told the Los Angeles Times. "It amounts to wholesale destruction of the environment, [and] destroys the essence of the Monterey pine forest."
Even after the setback, the developers maintained that their plans would have protected the forest in the long run. "Obviously we are saddened and disappointed that the commission didn't see the benefits of developing a small portion of the forest and putting the remainder in permanent protection," Anthony Lombardo, an attorney for the Pebble Beach Company, said. "We are going to step back and look at our options."
It seems that despite intensive lobbying by Eastwood, the development was doomed by the fact that it would have seen up to 18,000 trees - most of them Monterey pines - falling to the chainsaw and wetlands being filled in, bringing unpredictable changes to the fragile and beautiful coastal habitat.
The California Coastal Commission was set up 30 years ago to protect the coast from excessive development, a task it has only partially accomplished. "There's already been a century of mansion and golf development that has badly disconnected the forest," said Mark Massara of the Sierra Club, one of the country's foremost environment groups.
Monterey is a huge draw for golfers from around the world. They $475 a round to play the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Laid out in 1919, its design makes full use of the rocky coastline with golfers playing over incoming breakers to reach the greens.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2659719.ece
