Preserving the Haven

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is 10 years old this month. Supporters in Congress and in Los Angeles have relentlessly badgered the Reagan Administration to keep it financially healthy, but the park will be hard-pressed to sustain that growth in light of rising land prices and continued indifference in Washington and parts of Los Angeles County. The park is not finished, nor can it be unless future Presidents and members of Congress concentrate on preserving the mountain haven from urban sprawl.

The outlook was very bleak for the park until this past congressional session. The 1978 law that created the recreation area authorized spending $155 million for land over five years. But that schedule quickly evaporated, and by this year only $80 million had been appropriated. Last year, for example, the National Park Service received only $1 million for land purchases in the mountains.

This year friends of the park won approval of $11 million, an indication that Congress, too, wants the park to prosper. That money will not last long.

A top priority is paying back $3 million to the state for helping to keep open 786 acres in lower Zuma Canyon in the Malibu area. Another priority is buying 320 acres north of Paramount Ranch, which already is owned by the National Park Service. This land, Medea Valley, is one of the relatively few flat areas in the mountain park, and it offers a spot for organized recreation. But its owner has applied to upgrade the land’s zoning in order to build 160 instead of 103 homes.

Which brings us to the role of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. On May 24 the supervisors unanimously called for the federal government to buy the Medea Valley property and others so that they wouldn’t be lost to development. When the supervisors meet to decide in December whether to grant the zoning change sought by the property owner, we hope that they will remember what they said in May. The supervisors could help instead of hinder the land-acquisition process if they would turn down that zoning change, which can only jack up the price of the property.

The third priority of the park is acquiring small properties that together will fill in the Backbone Trail, a 55-mile strip for hiking and horseback riding. About 11 miles of trail are not part of the park now.

The Santa Monica Mountains are prime real estate, prime for development as well as prime for escape from the pressures of daily life. Unfortunately, it is the threat of development rather than any orderly plan that too often determines what land is bought in this park. Only if the Administration, Congress and local authorities like the Board of Supervisors work together can the task of putting together this park be completed. Then the mountains, their scenic views, their wildlife and their shrubs and trees, will have been preserved for the benefit of all rather than of the few.