Local News in Brief : Group Forms to Raise Funds for State Parklands Initiative

Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) and L.A. Law actor Harry Hamlin announced Friday the creation of a committee to support a $776-million statewide initiative to earmark $40 million for parklands in mountains ringing the San Fernando Valley.

Proposition 70, known as the California Wildlife, Coastal and Park Land Bond Act, would empower the state to sell bonds to raise funds to purchase or improve parklands, said Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. The conservancy is a state agency that buys land in the Santa Monica Mountains for parks and open space.

Edmiston said the initiative, if approved by voters June 7, would set aside $30 million to purchase land in the Santa Monica Mountains and $10 million for purchases in parts of the San Gabriel, Santa Susana and Verdugo mountains that border the Valley.

Margolin and Hamlin said the committee, which includes politicians and entertainers, will raise funds for advertisements endorsing the initiative.

The legislator and actor were joined at a press conference at the Hollywood Bowl overlook by attorney Lisa Specht, chairwoman of Californians for Parks and Wildlife. Specht’s group, a coalition of environmental and community groups, drafted the initiative.