Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Pete Denevi

Pete Denevi files a lawsuit to save option on property

By Jeff Kearns

For Pete Denevi, who has spent several years and more than $1 million trying to build a golf course in the hills above Los Gatos, the process has led from one headache to another. Now, after the current landowners terminated his option to buy the 210-acre parcel, Denevi has filed suit against Arlie Land and Cattle over the option, which he says was unfairly terminated by the company's land manager, John Musumeci.

According to the lawsuit, filed last week in Superior Court, Arlie notified Denevi July 6 that the company had terminated the option because Denevi had not signed and returned the general release to the Oregon-based company.

But Denevi told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times that he didn't sign the release because it asked Denevi to sign off the rights to any future legal action against Arlie. In the lawsuit, Denevi claims that he had agreed to sign a mutually drafted and accepted release, but that Arlie then presented him with a unilaterally drawn release.

Musumeci could not be reached for comment. Arlie's attorney was also unavailable.

Denevi was turned down by the county Planning Commission in 1996 because of environmental concerns about the golf course. He returned in December 1997 with a draft EIR on a new design with an organic approach. At about the same time, Arlie bought the land from Wisconsin-based Hong Kong Metro Realty, which passed on the option to buy the land.

Now, the county is asking Denevi for a $475,000 geotechnical study on hillsides in the area, but Denevi doesn't want to move ahead with the study until he's sure that he will be able to buy the land. Meanwhile, Arlie is hinting that it has plans to bring in a new, high-profile golf course developer.

Denevi requested an extension in March past the June 16 deadline, the suit says, because of delays in the process caused by Arlie's trying to get the county to recognize more lots on the property, which would change the potential density of development in the EIR being prepared. Arlie rejected the request. Later, the two parties agreed on "a significantly higher purchase price as well as the payment of $125,000 in option payments," the suit says. But a part of the agreement was the release, which Denevi's lawyers told him not to sign.

Denevi says he just wants to finally buy the land and get away from Arlie, but now it appears that the only way that can happen is in court. "Arlie's always changing things so much, and we just want to get going on the project," Denevi said.

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