Berman Revises Land Swap Legislation

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) probably will not pursue legislation this year to trade Elsmere Canyon near Santa Clarita to the city and county of Los Angeles to use as a dump, but still intends to do so in the future, Berman aides said Monday.

Berman recently removed any reference to the Elsmere property from a pending bill that would acquire about 5,882 acres owned by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada for the city of Los Angeles as a right of way for transmission lines from an electric power plant.

The city, in turn, would give about 392 acres it owns in the Santa Monica Mountains to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area as parkland. This includes about 310 acres of Upper Franklin Canyon above Beverly Hills and about 82 acres in Corral Canyon above Malibu.

The coal-burning White Pine Power Plant in Nevada will provide up to 30% of the city’s future electricity. The city Department of Water and Power has requested that Berman seek legislative approval for this swap as soon as possible.

Berman’s bill had previously included a swap under which the U.S. Forest Service would trade Elsmere Canyon for lands in the Santa Monica Mountains and non-federal land in Angeles National Forest. The measure called for preserving as parkland Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons in Los Angeles, county-owned sites that had also been earmarked as prospective landfills.

Elsmere, the cornerstone of the package, is being sought as a 190-million-ton capacity garbage dump to ease the city’s and county’s impending landfill shortage. The county, city, county sanitation districts, private parties--including BKK Corp.--and Berman have been engaged in complex negotiations on the land swap for nearly two years.

The city and county have hammered out a “memorandum of cooperation” to develop and operate the regional Elsmere trash dump. A joint powers authority would sell $195 million in bonds, which would be repaid by fees levied on dump users.

BKK, which has amassed about 500 acres of land at Elsmere Canyon and options on additional property, is pursuing an agreement in principle with the Forest Service to acquire nearly 1,000 acres of federal land for the dump. In exchange, the waste management firm would purchase privately held land in Angeles National Forest and give it to the Forest Service.

Such a swap could be done without legislation, which is only required for exchanges of land in different states.

Berman, however, has said that he will proceed with legislation to ensure that the city and county provide sufficient environmental compensation elsewhere for the filling-in of Elsmere Canyon. He has expressed particular concern about the role of politically well-connected developer Ray Watt, who has sought to build hundreds of luxury homes in Mission Canyon in exchange for property adjoining Elsmere to which he has the rights.

With the negotiations on the Elsmere Canyon swap continuing, Berman separated the non-controversial Nevada portion of the bill in a bid to pass it this year, said Michael S. Powell, the lawmaker’s legislative assistant. Powell said Berman still intends to introduce another bill on the Elsmere transaction but is unlikely to press the issue before Congress adjourns this year.

“It’s a very complicated bill and will require a great deal of congressional hearing and scrutiny,” Powell said. “We’re just running out of time to do that.”