Saving the Santa Monicas

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which 10 years ago was a dream on the verge of coming true, faces major obstacles today. Saving the park will require commitment from the top within the National Park Service, creative thinking about how best to use limited resources and renewed devotion from friends of the park who may have thought the fight was over.

In 1978 the Santa Monica Mountains area, with its ocean vistas and places of refuge for people, plants and animals, had just been elevated to a national project. Today developers are building homes and offices in the mountains and have permits for more because the federal government has not come up with the money to buy land and create a true recreation area.

The original plan called for a network of federal, state and local parks, linked by trails, covering about 100,000 acres. California had started the project by creating three large state parks at Topanga, Malibu Creek and Point Mugu, covering 28,000 acres. But, as Times staff writer Judy Pasternak reports, the federal government has added only 13,000 acres because money for buying the land, which never reached the amounts envisioned, dropped to only $1 million this year.

National Park Service director William Penn Mott Jr. wants to reduce the scope of the mountain project. He suggests that the federal government acquire only about 6,900 more acres to bring its total to 20,000 acres. In all, the recreation area would cover 57,000 acres. That’s less than two-thirds of the area originally planned for.

And that’s not right. We agree with Mott that the federal government obviously can’t spend all its money in Los Angeles. But a firm commitment of $6 to $7 million a year--not a negligible sum of money but a reasonable one--would allow the recreation-area officials to deal with landowners in some certainty that they could complete a deal. Selective buying would fill in key links in the park and increase access.

We disagree with Mott’s notion that the Santa Monica Mountains are not that important for recreation for area residents. “If it’s a nice day, where do they go? The beach,” Mott says. “If they have a little time, they go to the Sierra.” Even without signs or elaborate facilities, the park draws about 1 million visitors a year. Its potential is enormous. And once the land is gone, the potential can never be realized.

There are small signs of hope. The June 7 ballot contains a bond issue that designates $30 million for use by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. That would keep the effort alive. It would be far better, however, if the conservancy didn’t have to buy land dropped from the National Park Service priority list but could maintain its original mission, that is, to use the money to hold land until the state or federal government can acquire it.

Mayor Tom Bradley and several area members of Congress have pledged to push for more money. They need the backing of an aroused public, telling the Reagan Administration that the process of developing a park never ends. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area must not be a dream allowed to die.