By Jenny Gutierrez
Staff Writer
Malibu mogul A. Jerrold Perenchio has been making headlines recently in Los Angeles because of a lawsuit filed against him by a local environmental group regarding his 10-acre pitch-and-putt golf course he built in Malibu in 1982 on his own property.
The Wetlands Action Network (WAN), a locally based nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of wetlands along Pacific migratory pathways, has taken legal action against Perenchio for what it alleges is the illegal building of his golf course. Members of WAN claim that Perenchio failed to obtain a coastal development permit for the construction and operation of the course, as well as failure to comply with waste discharge requirements.
WAN seeks compliance with the law, and also civil penalties of $15,000 per day until compliance. The complaints are designed to stop discharge of chemicals into Malibu Lagoon, Surfrider Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
A Perenchio spokesperson told The Malibu Times that the site is not a golf course at all, but rather a grassy park with a green. Therefore, he said, Perenchio did nothing to violate the permit initially granted by the commission.
Perenchio received a permit in 1982 for the construction of a variety of items on the property, including a jogging trail, three ponds, irrigation and lighting system, a dish radio receiver, three gazebos, and an eight-foot rock wall behind one of his Malibu Colony homes. Instead, WAN claims, Perenchio secretly built the golf course.
Perenchio runs Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV network. His 16 percent stake in the company is now worth $1.2 billion, but the self-made billionaire has a net worth of $2.8 billion. Malibu Bay Company, the largest landholder and developer in Malibu, is also owned by Perenchio, with properties in the Civic Center, Point Dume and west Malibu.
November 13, 2003
