County Backs Away From Sale of Land

L.A. County has backed away from a plan to dispose of 53 acres of undeveloped coastal land along the Rancho Palos Verdes-San Pedro border, disappointing individuals and organizations who had developed plans of their own for the land.

The county bought the land in the early 1970s for a park that was never developed.

Environmentalists had become concerned after the county Regional Planning Commission acted on a finding by the county Department of Parks and Recreation that the land is no longer needed. It said that sale of the land in Rancho Palos Verdes, on a bluff overlooking the ocean, would not conflict with the county general plan.

While acknowledging that the department began the process of declaring it surplus by asking for an appraisal, chief park planner Jim Park said last week that there has been no decision on what to do with the land. He called the commission action premature and said the county’s options are to let the property remain open space, to develop a park or sell the land.