BATTLE on the Back Nine

A Los Angeles private school bought a golf course six years ago. Why haven't the students used it yet?

- ANDREW ZUCKER

Bill Nye the Science Guy is used to explaining atoms, molecules, and cells, but real estate zoning laws are an entirely different universe.

On the morning of August 24, Nye stood outside Van Nuys City Hall in his signature bow tie. On the docket inside was a development project spanning Weddington Golf & Tennis, a sports facility in Studio City. “It’s beautiful, it is an oasis, it is an emerald jewel in the middle of urban sprawl,” Nye, a longtime Studio City resident, says of the land. “When it gets paved over it will break our hearts.”

Six years earlier Harvard-Westlake, a $46,900-per-year prep school with a nearby campus in Studio City, purchased the 16-acre golf and tennis complex for $42 million. Since then the school has become mired in a protracted public fight over its plans for the land.

News of a private school purchasing a golf course spread quickly. “It’s hard to live in Los Angeles and not be aware of [Harvard-Westlake’s purchase],” says Jamie Bakal, an L.A.-based education consultant.

Harvard-Westlake is known as Hollywood power players’ school of choice, with first class academics and athletics. Within Studio City, the school has tried to foster goodwill over the years, sending staff to a local food drive and opening up its track course to neighbors.