Panel Backs Extension of Santa Monica Mountains Agency

The state Senate Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday approved a bill to give the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, now scheduled to go out of business in July, 1990, a new lease on life.

The measure, by state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), would extend the existence of the agency to Dec. 31, 1995. Without discussion, the committee approved the bill on a 9-0 vote and sent it to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Rosenthal said he was “a little surprised” that the bill sailed through the Natural Resources Committee without opposition because critics in previous years have questioned the need for the conservancy. He suggested that the conservancy now is accepted by lawmakers as a “motherhood” issue.

“I think that the environment and open space concepts have taken on greater importance in people’s minds,” Rosenthal said.

Supporters saw the unopposed vote as a hopeful sign for the bill’s eventual passage.

Since the conservancy was established in 1979, it has purchased or helped pay for the acquisition of about 10,000 acres of open space and parkland at a cost of about $38 million, according to Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director.

When the conservancy was created, backers overcame objections that there were already sufficient state and local agencies to handle purchases of private property in the mountains.

In 1981, the Legislature extended the conservancy’s life to July, 1986, but as that date approached, prospects for further extension were uncertain because Gov. George Deukmejian was not a strong supporter of the agency. In 1985, for example, Deukmejian dealt it a setback by vetoing $6 million in the budget for the conservancy to buy additional land. Later that year, however, Deukmejian signed legislation extending the conservancy to 1990.

The agency has increasingly attracted bipartisan support, with Republicans now carrying bills for an agency that was established with heavy Democratic backing.