State Jumps Into Battle Over Vast Playa Vista Plan

California entered the battle over Los Angeles development on Tuesday when state Controller Gray Davis announced that the state has taken over 70 acres of vacant Westside land near Marina del Rey that is worth at least $84 million in a tax settlement with the heirs of Howard Hughes.

Davis, a Democrat who may run for governor in 1990, made it clear at a press conference that he is sympathetic to the aims of city political activists seeking to slow development in many areas, including the undeveloped area near the marina and Los Angeles International Airport where Summa Corp., Hughes’ old company, envisions a vast residential and commercial development called Playa Vista.

Playa Vista would be built on largely undeveloped land reaching three miles inland from Santa Monica Bay to the San Diego Freeway, including the Ballona Wetlands, a wildfowl preserve environmentalists have been trying to save from development, and a parcel across the channel from Marina del Rey.

The 70-acre parcel taken over by the state is within an area bounded by Lincoln Boulevard, Ballona Creek and the Marina Freeway.

Under terms of an agreement with Hughes’ heirs to pay California estate taxes, Davis had the choice of taking the land or receiving $75 million from the estate. But a 1987 valuation by Coldwell Banker for the state found the land was worth $84 million even before roads would be built on it and $107 million with roads.

And in deciding to hold onto the land, a key part of the Playa Vista development plan, Davis clearly wanted to gain bargaining clout for himself and for anti-development forces in future negotiations with Hughes’ heirs over the remaining portion of the Summa holdings.

‘People Will Have a Say’

“I think what we are doing here today guarantees that the people will have a say in the development of this parcel,” Davis said. “If it is going to be developed, it has to be in a way that is going to make sense environmentally and economically.”

“My goal is to save the historic Ballona Wetlands, which is threatened by development currently scheduled by the Hughes estate,” Davis said. “My plan means less development, less traffic and less pollution.”

Joining Davis at the press conference on a muddy field was Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who was elected last year partially on a pledge to reduce the Summa development. Support from the first-term councilwoman and her supporters, who waged a tough and skilled campaign in defeating longtime incumbent Councilwoman Pat Russell, could help Davis if she decided to back him for governor.

“I am delighted that the state of California is now firmly on record as supporting protection of coastal resources,” she said.

Davis said his decision was not politically motivated. “I don’t view this as leaping on one side of a controversy,” he said. But Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, a Republican who represents the area, disagreed.

He expressed unhappiness with one possibility Davis mentioned--trading the state’s 70 acres to Summa for cash and a portion of the wetlands where the company wants to build.

Dana said the county had wanted to share in the development of the land taken over by the state and to use some of the land for a new courthouse to serve West Los Angeles.

And Dana expressed displeasure at the Davis-Galanter goal of saving more wetlands, saying that it would run counter to arrangements worked out with Russell, the rest of the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley. “There was an agreement on the City Council . . . and obviously Ruth Galanter is trying to change that . . . to expand the wetlands.”

Nor did Summa appear to share the Davis-Galanter goal of limiting development. In a statement suggesting that a long battle and plenty of negotiations lie ahead, Summa said the state takeover will not change the company’s plans for development of the rest of its holdings.

“We are pleased that the state has decided to take the land and pleased that the issue of taxes is now settled for the estate,” said Summa representative Christine Henry. “But it has no impact on our plans for the balance of Playa Vista.”

In fact, Henry said, Summa will seek to add 2,000 homes in another part of Playa Vista if it must give up wetlands area.