Santa Monica Mountains : Congress Gives Park $8 Million

The $368-billion spending bill approved by Congress Thursday includes nearly $8 million to buy land for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

A National Park Service spokesman in Woodland Hills said officials there are very happy about the appropriation, which may allow them to acquire a key tract in Calabasas owned by Quaker Corp., which wants to develop the land.

Money for the mountain park was contained in the bill that finances several major departments--including Defense, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation and Treasury--through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The $7.95 million for the Santa Monicas is about one-sixth of the $48.1 million approved for park expansion nationwide.

President Reagan quickly approved the bill.

In what has become an annual autumn rite, national recreation area officials and boosters had been sweating through House and Senate negotiations aimed at reconciling conflicting budgets for land purchases. The House had approved $12 million to expand the mountain park, but the Senate, following the recommendation of the Reagan Administration, had appropriated no money.

150,000 Acres

The recreation area, created by Congress in 1978, encompasses 150,000 acres of public and privately owned land extending from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County. Plans call for local, state and federal agencies to own about two-thirds of the land, with the rest remaining in private hands. The Park Service has acquired about 11,000 of the 36,000 acres it intends to buy.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the bill that established the recreation area and lobbied for the latest appropriation, said in a prepared statement that the $8 million “is not a huge amount when you look at how much land the National Park Service still needs to buy there.”

But Beilenson said that, in light of the $48 million for park expansion nationwide, “the Santa Monicas did very, very well.”

The appropriation, Beilenson said, shows that “Congress is serious about completing this park,” despite repeated requests for no funding by the Administration and “enormous pressures to cut spending wherever possible.”

The appropriation should enable the Park Service to keep its part of a deal that will mean public ownership of Adamson Cos.’ 1,500-acre holdings in Zuma and Trancas canyons in Malibu--the largest undeveloped canyon property in Los Angeles County.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency, is putting up $6 million to buy and hold nearly 800 acres of the land for sale to the Park Service. The Park Service has until Dec. 31 to come up with nearly $2.1 million for the other half of the property.

The appropriation could lead to a showdown between the Park Service and Quaker Corp., which owns a 272-acre tract along Mulholland Highway in the Las Virgenes Valley. Park Service officials have said that they want to acquire the land for use as part of a “major activity site” because its rugged mountain scenery and abundant flatland make it ideal for camping, picnicking and similar pursuits.

In September, however, Quaker won approval from the California Coastal Commission to subdivide the property into 34 lots for houses.

Appraising Tract

Since then, Quaker officials have denied the Park Service permission to send an appraiser on the property and have lobbied members of Congress and top Park Service officials to strike their land from a list of priority acquisitions.

As part of that unsuccessful effort, Quaker lobbyists claimed that various state agencies had declared the tract unsuitable for recreational use. But state officials said no such conclusion had been drawn.

Saul Jacobs, Quaker vice president, declined comment Thursday on the congressional action.

Quaker and the Park Service have been at odds since an appraiser hired by the agency in 1983 estimated the value of the property at $1.7 million, a figure Quaker said was ridiculously low. An appraiser hired by Quaker the next year estimated the value at nearly $10.2 million.

Third Appraisal

At Quaker’s request, the Park Service contracted for another appraisal last spring. But Quaker, saying the Park Service had reneged on a promise to let it comment on the choice of an appraiser, refused to let the appraiser on the land. The company rebuffed similar requests this fall after gaining the Coastal Commission approval.

William Webb, the recreation area’s assistant superintendent for operations, said Thursday that the agency is “still trying to get permission to appraise that property.” He declined to say what steps will be taken now that there is money in hand.

Dan Kuehn, superintendent of the mountain park, could not be reached for comment Thursday. But Kuehn said recently that, if the park got a substantial appropriation and Quaker still barred an appraiser, he would recommend that the Park Service condemn the property or go to court to gain access to the land.

‘Hardship’ Cases

Webb said Thursday that a third priority, after acquisition of the Quaker and Adamson tracts, will be handling “hardship” cases. These involve mostly small, financially strapped landowners whose tracts are slated for acquisition and who need to sell quickly. Webb said there are 21 hardship tracts covering 564 acres that could be bought for an estimated $2.8 million.

The appropriation came without strings attached, despite requests by Quaker and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for language that would have required the Park Service to complete purchases in the Zuma-Trancas area before buying land anywhere else.

In October, supervisors adopted a resolution asking Congress to earmark any appropriation for use in the Zuma-Trancas area. The resolution was passed at the request of Concerned Citizens for Property Rights, an association of mountain landowners.

Beilenson and others lobbied against attaching such a condition to the appropriation.