In Santa Monica Mountains : Planned Campground for Handicapped OKd

A plan for a privately run mountain nature center for handicapped campers was approved Tuesday night by officials of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The recreation area’s advisory commission voted 6 to 4 to permit a nonprofit group called Total Access Camping to proceed with planning for the $1-million project. The group proposes to build the unusual campground on 160 acres of federal parkland at Mulholland Highway and Decker Road south of Westlake Village.

The vote means Burt Wallrich, the founder of Total Access Camping, can begin raising funds and drawing up blueprints for development of the property. But actual construction will depend on whether Wallrich meets conditions to be set by the National Park Service.

The campground plan was supported Tuesday night by Park Service planners, who in a written statement called the proposal “an appealing concept that appears to fill a gap in needed services for a large population.”

But Ranger Bill Farrand, a management assistant for the national recreation area, said officials will not not permit any construction that spoils views of the mountain area.

A dozen disabled persons in wheelchairs were in the commission audience as it met at a ranch in the mountains south of Calabasas. Panel members heard emotional pleas to approve the campground request.

“A tent and a cot isn’t going to make it for me,” David Geffen, 26, said. “I need something that’s more like a house. I just want you to have an open mind.”

But opposition was voiced by several environmentalists, who warned that the campground would set a bad precedent for the use of public land by private groups.

Total Access Camping was formed two years ago after Wallrich and his 54-year-old arthritis-handicapped wife, Nancy, encountered difficulties using her wheelchair during a vacation in Arizona.

“We found I could either walk around and come back and describe things to her, or I could stay with her and neither of us could see anything,” he said.

Wallrich, 48, a Santa Fe Springs resident who works as a resume-writer, said he hopes to finance the 75-bed campground with donations from companies and foundations.

The completed park would have four lodge buildings with private bedrooms and baths and a dining hall. It would also have an exercise swimming pool for the handicapped visitors.