Bold Alliance Aims to Save 3 Canyons : Preservation: The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has allied itself with BKK Corp. in an attempt to preserve three areas from becoming landfills.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has boldly injected itself into negotiations over a proposed county landfill north of Sylmar in an effort to acquire three canyons in the Santa Monicas that the agency wants preserved, The Times has learned.

The conservancy has become a player by allying itself with a private firm to get control of land that the county needs to develop the proposed Elsmere Canyon landfill. Control of that land gives the conservancy a bargaining chip that it will try to exchange for the three canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains--Sullivan, Rustic and Mission--that could otherwise be developed.

The high-stakes gambit changes the dynamics of land-swap negotiations between Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles and other public agencies and private interests concerning the proposed Elsmere Canyon landfill, which officials see as a key to heading off an impending trash crisis.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated this,” said one of those familiar with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At the county, some folks are going to jump out of their skins. And the city’s not going to be much happier. . . . It’s the 53rd card in the deck.”

The move represents a mutual aid pact between unusual allies: the conservancy, which is a state agency that buys parkland in and near the Santa Monica Mountains, and BKK Corp., a leading Southern California waste disposal firm that owns the Elsmere land at issue and wants to develop the landfill.

The agreement with the conservancy may also elevate BKK’s bargaining power. The county and independent County Sanitation Districts insist that the landfill must be publicly owned. BKK faces possible condemnation of the land if it cannot agree with the county and city on a sale price. The Torrance-based waste disposal firm has rejected an initial offer of more than $50 million.

But the land would essentially become condemnation-proof in the hands of the conservancy because one public agency cannot condemn land held by another.

“It allows us to go along and do our environmental studies and proceed with the permitting” of the landfill “without the county coming in and taking the project,” BKK President Kenneth B. Kazarian said Thursday. “We decided to eliminate the hammer from our heads.”

Under terms of the deal, BKK next Thursday will transfer to the conservancy about 500 acres needed for Elsmere access near the intersection of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways, Kazarian said. Most of the land would provide access from a new freeway interchange.

The conservancy is seeking to acquire Rustic, Sullivan and Mission canyons, which are south of Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains. It has long coveted these 2,300 acres, which are being held by the county and sanitation districts for possible future use as garbage dumps.

Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, said it was “clear that the conservancy felt that it had to take . . . steps to assure that Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons would be part of the mitigation package for the landfill in Elsmere Canyon.”

The county and the sanitation districts acquired Mission, Rustic and Sullivan in the 1950s and ‘60s for use as landfills. The county dumped trash in Mission until 1965. Conservationists, affluent homeowners and the city of Los Angeles have expressed intense opposition to dumping in the canyons, but the sanitation districts have refused to sell them to the conservancy.

Rustic and Sullivan, deep clefts on the eastern flank of Topanga State Park, are “the most pristine canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains even though they are within the city of Los Angeles,” Edmiston said.

But the conservancy has been unable to secure a promise from city and county negotiators that a complicated land-swap needed to establish the Elsmere dump will include transfer of Mission, Sullivan and Rustic to the conservancy, Edmiston said.

Moreover, politically powerful developer Ray Watt is pushing for the county and city to grant him land and permits in Mission Canyon for a major housing development in exchange for land that he owns near Elsmere and rights to other holdings.

Under the secret deal reached by the conservancy and BKK several weeks ago, the conservancy will protect BKK by holding its land, and BKK will push the conservancy’s interest in the three canyons during negotiations with the county, city and sanitation districts, according to Kazarian.

In addition, if BKK proceeds with plans for developing the dump, it will turn over to the conservancy as much as 1,000 acres that it has options to purchase around the landfill as buffer, Kazarian said.

The deal would buy BKK time to complete its environmental review, get permits and continue efforts to acquire the rest of Elsmere Canyon, which it needs for the landfill, from the U. S. Forest Service. If by that time BKK and public agencies have not reached an accord, the conservancy would return the Elsmere properties to BKK.

At that point, Kazarian acknowledged, the county could still condemn the property but the firm would be in a stronger position--particularly if a court then had to determine the land’s value.

“We’d be talking about a significantly different set of circumstances,” Kazarian said. “Our position would be more established.”

Edmiston stressed that the proposed pact with BKK was not meant “to threaten anyone, and it is not a threat.”

“Everyone has known from day one what we felt and what the environmental community felt . . . were the minimum conditions” for filling Elsmere Canyon, he said, referring to preservation of Mission, Rustic and Sullivan. “It should surprise no one that we’re doing what is within our legal jurisdiction to do to assure that those mitigation measures are met.”

The pact was discussed Tuesday night in executive session by the conservancy board. David Gackenbach, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and a conservancy board member, declined to discuss the executive session. But he said the strategy is meant to win the conservancy a role in the bargaining with the county, city and Watt.

Negotiators “should consider the agencies that are dealing with lands within the Santa Monica Mountains zone rather than trying to cut a lot of these deals without input” from them, Gackenbach said.

Principals involved in the prolonged land-swap negotiations reacted with surprise and caution to news of the agreement between the conservancy and BKK.

Attorney Robert K. Tanenbaum, who has been retained by the county to negotiate an agreement with the other parties, declined comment. So did Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), author of a bill to acquire Elsmere from the Forest Service for the city and county.

Charles Carry, the sanitation districts’ manager and chief engineer, called it “an interesting twist” but added, “I’m not sure what it means.”

A city official involved in the talks said the agreement was a total surprise. “Gee whiz,” he said. “They’re really playing hardball.”

Elsmere, the proposed 190-million-ton landfill, would be a major repository of the city’s trash for the next several decades and is seen by city and county sanitation officials as a partial solution to an impending trash crisis stemming from dwindling landfill space. The sanitation districts is also pursuing the Santa Monica Mountains’ canyons as one of five other potential dump sites.

The canyons are a sore point with County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who sent a scathing letter to the sanitation districts’ board last month vowing to oppose any land-swap agreement that eliminates Mission, Rustic and Sullivan as future landfill sites.

“A few hundred wealthy and powerful Westside residents forced the closure of Mission Canyon a decade ago,” Schabarum wrote. “Since then, they have resisted every effort to reopen this critically needed landfill and they have opposed the placement of trash in Rustic-Sullivan canyons.”

Schabarum, a Republican, has four of the 10 active landfills in the county in his San Gabriel Valley district. There are no landfills on the heavily Democratic, well-populated Westside of Los Angeles, home to the three controversial canyons.

He may be in the minority on the board. Three of the five supervisors--Deane Dana, Mike Antonovich and Ed Edelman--said the canyons should not be used as landfills or should be used only as a last resort. They said the number of nearby homes made a landfill unrealistic.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

THE PLAYERS BKK

Has: Control of potential access route to Elsmere Canyon and part of proposed dump property.

Wants: To develop and operate Elsmere Canyon landfill or obtain maximum price for its holdings.

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy

Has: No assets to bring to bargaining table, but ability to shield BKK from possible condemnation proceedings.

Wants: To acquire Mission, Sullivan and Rustic canyons in Santa Monica Mountains.

Los Angeles County and County Sanitation Districts

Have: Ownership of Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons and power to condemn access route to Elsmere Canyon.

Want: To operate Elsmere Canyon landfill as public dump.

THE DEAL BKK gives conservancy title to Elsmere Canyon access land, precluding condemnation by county because land owned by a public agency--the conservancy--cannot by law be condemned.

THE EFFECT BKK’s hand is potentially strengthened and the conservancy becomes a player in negotiations.

Conservancy hopes to obtain Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons.

BKK seeks to improve its bargaining position on Elsmere Canyon rights by preventing condemnation, at least until it has consolidated its landfill holdings.