Controversial Agoura Hills Road Could Reopen : State Plans to Purchase Medfield Street From County

A state parks agency disclosed plans Wednesday to buy land from Los Angeles County that includes controversial Medfield Street at less than market value, in a move that would pave the way for Agoura Hills to reopen the street.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy said it wants to buy the Medfield Street property at less than market value, sell it later at a profit and use that money to help purchase 10 nearby acres for an equestrian park in Agoura Hills.

In a prepared statement, Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, described the move as “an innovative use” of the conservancy’s right of first refusal to buy surplus public land within its jurisdiction at the price the seller originally paid, rather than at the present fair-market price.

The conservancy intends to announce its plans to buy the land at a news conference today, agency spokeswoman Laura Young said. Edmiston could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Medfield Street was built by a developer in 1978 as a temporary road for construction traffic. The county never formally approved the street, and neither the county nor the city of Agoura Hills, which was incorporated in 1982, would accept legal liability for the road.

After a 6-year campaign by a residents group seeking to close Medfield Street, the county shut the road in August and put the land up for sale. But the resulting traffic jams on nearby streets upset the business community in Agoura Hills. Last month, the city asked the county for an easement to allow the reopening of the street for eastbound traffic with heavy trucks banned.

The statement from the conservancy’s Edmiston said the county “has enabled us to proceed.” But county Department of Public Works spokeswoman Jean Granucci and Dave Vannatta, planning aide to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said they were unaware of the conservancy’s intentions for Medfield Street.

Because neither county public works nor conservancy officials were available for comment Wednesday, it was unclear whether the conservancy has the authority to use its right of first refusal to buy land for resale rather than for open-space preservation.

“The county attorney would take a long, hard look at the question of whether the authority of the conservancy was being exceeded in this particular case,” Deputy County Counsel Paul T. Hanson said.

In another complication, Robert Charles Stroud, the owner of the 10 acres the conservancy envisions as an equestrian park, said Wednesday that the land is being sold for $1.6 million to a home builder whom Stroud would not identify.

The city has tried unsuccessfully this year to buy the property for parkland from Stroud, of Woodland Hills, at an appraised value of $630,000, said Vince Mastrosimone, Agoura Hills public works director.

Stroud called the city’s $630,000 appraisal ridiculous.

The appraisal was based on current zoning, which permits low density housing development, Mastrosimone said. He said a prospective builder could conceivably seek a zoning change that would allow a higher density, increasing the value of the land.

Young said she could not say how much the conservancy would be willing to pay for the 10 acres at Driver Avenue and Chesebro Road. She said she did not know how much money would become available through the conservancy’s purchase and resale of the Medfield Street property. But Agoura Hills officials have said that the Medfield Street land is worth less than $500,000.

The Medfield land consists of three contiguous parcels totaling about 2 acres, Young said. Two of the parcels, located at the intersection of Medfield Street and Lewis Road, would be sold by the conservancy as soon as possible, she said.

Medfield Street runs through the third parcel, and the conservancy would grant the city an easement for the road until the city completes its planned extension of Canwood Street as an alternate route in 1990, she said.

The county bought the three parcels in 1980 and 1981, Granucci said. Granucci was not aware of what the county paid at that time and said the information was unavailable Wednesday.