Bonds for Parks--a Big Push : Recreation: Activists are pressing county supervisors to put the $750-million measure on the ballot. The funds would be used to improve beaches, parks, wildlife habitats and museums.

In a sunny office overlooking the Malibu coast, a serious-faced young woman named Esther Feldman is quietly helping hatch a political game plan she hopes will result in voters passing what is apparently the biggest bond measure in Los Angeles County history.

For up to 14 hours a day, Feldman, 28, confers with environmentalists and city managers, businessmen and labor activists, earnestly pitching the need for $750 million in bonds to improve beaches, parks, wildlife habitats and museums as a tonic for the woes of urbanization.

“This county is so appallingly behind in terms of providing adequate park and recreation and open-space opportunities for its residents,” she said, sitting in her office high on a Malibu ridge, the gleaming Pacific visible beyond the window.

“The faster this county grows--and it hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down--the more extreme the needs get,” said Feldman, who is public outreach director for the Malibu-based Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a state-local government agency which provides recreation and ranger services for parks in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

But some county officials have raised questions about the massive park bond measure, which promoters are trying to persuade county supervisors to place on the November ballot. Officials are concerned that the bonds may drive the county’s debt too high and jeopardize the chances for passage of other bond measures on the same ballot, including those for hospitals and jails.

If approved by voters, the bond revenues would be split among the county’s 86 cities and county-maintained beaches, museums, botanical gardens and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The conservancy would receive $120 million, which could be used to buy more land in the Santa Monicas, as well as help complete the proposed “Rim of the Valley” trail system, Feldman said.

Another $120 million would be earmarked for the cities, with the money parceled out on a per-capita basis. Los Angeles, with 3.4 million people, would get nearly $53 million, for example, while tiny Hidden Hills, with just 1,950 residents, would draw $30,000.

In addition, $50 million would be set aside for county beaches and $40 million to preserve historic structures, construct hiking and biking trails and plant trees in urban areas.

Joel Segal, a spokesman for County Chief Administrator Richard Dixon, said that the measure was the largest general obligation bond issue in county history “to the best of my knowledge.” The next-largest was a $225-million flood control issue in the late 1950s, he said.

The general obligation bonds would be secured by county property tax revenues and paid off over about 20 years. According to Feldman, they would cost the average property taxpayer an extra $27 in the first year and about half that in successive years.

To promote the bonds, Feldman and other organizers are fashioning an odd-bedfellows coalition whose members range from Sierra Clubbers to inner-city activists, who believe the bonds promise relief for urban parks overrun by gangs and drug dealers.

Another leader in the bond campaign, Lynn Alvarez--an immigration lawyer who heads the group People for Parks--said the bonds could ease conflict in many heavily Latino neighborhoods over what sports can be played in local parks. Although most parks are now set up only for softball and baseball, bond revenues could be used to build soccer fields, making them more attractive to Latinos, she said.

Bond backers launched their campaign about a year ago after commissioning a $15,000 opinion poll to test voter support for the measure. The poll, paid for with public funds by the conservancy and two smaller park agencies, found that 76% of the county’s registered voters would vote for the bonds, said Feldman.

Much of the day-to-day organizing is being done by Feldman, a former UC extension agriculture teacher who served as assistant campaign manager for Proposition 70, a statewide park bond issue that was approved by voters in 1988 and raised $776 million.

Feldman said that despite the success of Proposition 70 and other statewide bond issues, Los Angeles County--with about one-third of California’s population--traditionally has been shortchanged on revenues it receives. For instance, of the $776 million generated by Proposition 70, the county received only $120 million, she said.

At least one supervisor--Pete Schabarum--is firmly opposed to the bond issue. Supervisors Kenneth Hahn and Ed Edelman support the measure, while Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana are undecided, their spokesmen said.