LETTERS: GOLFER SUPPORTS OTHERS' SPORTS.

In her April 26 letter, Sylvia Lewis Gunning has much to say at the ``risk of offending a few friends,'' about the proposed Hill Canyon Golf Course.

I was not in the least offended but was somewhat surprised at Gunning's lack of knowledge of the facts, and her selfishness.

She repeats a statement that there are 3,500 card-carrying golfers in Thousand Oaks.

Ms. Gunning, these are avid golfers who join country clubs or men's clubs in order to establish a handicap to play in organized tournaments or to keep track of their progress in the sport.

The great majority of golfers do not join these organizations and just play for recreation. I'll bet, Ms. Gunning, that there are golf clubs in 90 percent of the homes in Thousand Oaks.

Ms. Gunning, I'm not an equestrian. But there is a group of equestrians in Thousand Oaks, and it's a darn good place to practice their interest. I fully support tax dollars going to provide facilities for them.

I don't play soccer - I don't even like it. But there are those who are into it, and I fully support tax dollars going to provide facilities for them.

I don't hike trails (I'm too tired from walking the golf course), but I fully support tax dollars to maintain trails so that those who do not abuse them can hike and ride their horses through the mountains.

I'm sorry that you, Ms. Gunning, do not understand or want to understand the most cerebral of sports - golf - which demands more perfection of performance than any sport I have ever played.

I guess people like you consider environmental reports, such as the Hill Canyon report, the same as you do the Constitution. When they are in your favor, you stand diligently behind them. When they don't reach the conclusions which are in your interest, they are irrelevant or illegitimate.

Mike Hannin

Newbury Park

Residents must take matters in hand now

Thousand Oaks residents deserve a binding vote on whether Hill Canyon should be developed or left in its natural state. According to state election codes, the ``advisory vote'' proposed by Mayor Linda Parks is the equivalent of an elaborate opinion poll.

Twice, an advisory vote has been taken in Thousand Oaks history. Both were voted down by residents against city leaders developing the Civic Arts Plaza/Government Center. This clearly demonstrates the effective weight of an advisory vote and how city leaders disregard upholding the will of the people they claim to represent.

There is no reason for the Hill Canyon Recreational Resources Authority, (HCRRA) made up of the five members of the Thousand Oaks City Council and the five members of the Conejo Recreation and Park Board, not to approve an advisory vote because it has no value and no legal influence to stop their development of Hill Canyon once the vote is taken.

An advisory vote does not stop the HCRRA from continuing to spend taxpayer funds, moving forward to certify the final environmental impact reports, putting bonds out for funding, obtaining all required state permits, making more land swaps or approving land-use changes to the general plan. It is merely another feel-good pacification trick to shut the public up!

City leaders will continue to work toward planning, design and development of this unnecessary and extravagant golf course behind closed doors, away from public involvement and scrutiny, until the advisory vote occurs and then slap the development in.

Once again ignoring the outcry of the community, ruining this refuge for wildlife, severing this vital link to nature, destroying our last undeveloped wetland, polluting the Calleguas watershed and stealing the public's open space.

By the time this advisory vote is put on the ballot in the year 2000 and residents vote, it will be too late to stop it. Unless residents take matters into their own hands to either circulate a legally binding ballot initiative now or circulate a legally binding ballot referendum after the HCRRA certifies the final environmental impact report, city leaders will have once again fooled and deceived the public.

We cannot allow our elected city leaders to destroy the majestic beauty of Hill Canyon, the open-space extension of Wildwood Regional Park, simply for their recreational pleasure

Chris Buckett

Thousand Oaks