State to Consider Creating New Park : Bond Money Would Buy Mountain Parcel Between Valleys

The state Department of Parks and Recreation plans to hold public hearings next month on a proposal to start a new park in the mountains between the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys with money from a state parklands initiative approved by voters in June.

Parks officials are weighing whether to buy about 600 acres on mountains overlooking the San Fernando Valley, said Ken Collier, parks department project manager. The land extends about four miles west from O’Melveny Park in Granada Hills to Oat Mountain above Chatsworth.

If the state decides to go forward with the proposal, it would signal a commitment to pursue creation of a new park on more than 6,000 acres on the northern face of the Santa Susana Mountains, Collier said.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said the land is “big-tree country,” ideal for parkland and filled with oaks and conifers. Proponents have labeled the idea “Santa Clarita Woodlands State Park.”

Proposition 70, which was approved by voters in June, earmarked $10 million for acquiring parkland along the San Fernando Valley rim. Most of the money probably will be spent to expand a 428-acre park in the Santa Susana Pass, between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, Collier said. But parks officials are considering using some of the money to start the new park.

“That’s what we’re trying to settle at this point--whether or not we will be involved at all in that area,” Collier said.

Obtaining funds for such a park and persuading landowners to sell would be significant hurdles, he said.

February Hearings

Dates for the public hearings have not been scheduled, but officials expect to hold the hearings in Granada Hills and Simi Valley in late February, Collier said.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) and Assemblywomen Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge) support the concept of the new park, their spokesmen said.

But there is a longstanding interest in buying more parkland in the Santa Susana Pass area, “so it will be a very controversial point as to if and how much of the Santa Clarita area we try to acquire,” Collier said.

Santa Susana Pass park advocates are waiting to see how much of the $10-million bond allocation the state proposes to spend on the new park, said Jan Hinkston, founder of the Santa Susana Mountain Park Assn.

“The $10 million could easily be spent in the pass area alone,” Hinkston said.

Key parts of a narrow wildlife corridor in the pass have yet to be bought by the state, she said.

The creation of the new park could also have implications for a proposal to expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill into unincorporated Los Angeles County, said Bruce Whidden, an aide to La Follette, who opposes the landfill.

The landfill operator, Browning-Ferris Industries, wants to expand the landfill west. A small portion of property involved in the expansion would eventually be included in the new park, Collier said.

The park proposal is not intended to block growth of the landfill, Whidden said, but blowing trash could make the park less attractive and enjoyable.

A spokesman for Browning-Ferris could not be reached for comment.