State Money for Parkland Asked : L.A. Council Supports Purchase of La Tuna Canyon Site

Los Angeles City Council members Friday called on Gov. George Deukmejian and the Legislature to provide funds for the purchase of a 1,000-acre site in La Tuna Canyon for the Verdugo Mountains park.

The site, south of La Tuna Canyon Road, once was proposed for use as a garbage dump. Its owner, BKK Corp., conceding that it probably could not win city approval for a landfill there, recently said it wants to sell the property to the state for inclusion in the Verdugo Mountains-San Rafael Hills Urban State Park. The park takes in 14,000 acres across the far eastern San Fernando Valley and above Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena.

The BKK site is next to another property once proposed for a landfill. Funds for purchase of those 200 acres owned by Hrant Bagdasarian are included in the proposed state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Friday’s council action was requested by Councilman Howard Finn, whose northeast San Fernando Valley district includes the BKK land. Finn said the state’s Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy supports the acquisition but must obtain funds from the governor and Legislature.

The conservancy has yet to appraise the property, but Finn said BKK has offered to sell the land to the state for what it paid for it in 1978--$1.25 million.

BKK director Ernest T. Winter recently said in a letter to Finn, who opposed a landfill on the site: “We fully appreciate your expressed desire to impose the will of your constituents to keep certain types of land uses elsewhere. But, in the meantime, our taxes continue without the privilege of the use and enjoyment of the property.” Therefore, Winter said, the company is now interested in selling the property.

Conservancy director Joseph T. Edmiston called the agency’s chance of obtaining funds “pretty good” because the project is supported by the area’s state senator, Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale), who, Edmiston said, has close ties to Deukmejian, a Republican.

The conservancy has had strong support from the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Deukmejian has been a lukewarm supporter of the conservancy.

The conservancy, although created in 1980 by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and the Legislature to help acquire land for a national park in the Santa Monica Mountains, recently was given additional authority to acquire land for the Rim-of-the-Valley Trail, linking all of the mountain ranges surrounding the Valley, including the Verdugo Mountains.