$2.8-Million Selling Price for Parkland : Conservancy: A tentative deal is made on 11-acre site in the Santa Clarita Valley. It’s seen as the gateway to a future state park.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has reached a tentative agreement to purchase 11 acres of parkland in the Santa Clarita Valley for $2.8 million, which would be the largest amount ever paid by the state agency for such a small parcel.

The agreement will be considered by the conservancy’s board of directors Monday.

By comparison, the conservancy purchased 145 acres in the same area for $500,000 last December.

“It is a lot to pay for 11 acres,” Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, conceded last week. But Edmiston said the parcel, although relatively small, would provide a gateway to the proposed Santa Clarita Woodlands State Park northwest of the interchange of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

The 11 acres abut the Old Road and are zoned for commercial development. If not purchased now, the property could be developed and thus cut off access to the proposed 6,000-acre state park, Edmiston said.

“It’s a small part of a bigger picture,” Carole Stevens, chairwoman of the conservancy, said of the land. “It’s an access way, and that’s why it’s important to us.”

The property would provide a staging ground for hikers planning to reach East Canyon and Rice Canyon, described as “exquisitely beautiful” nature preserves by Rorie Skei, a conservancy board member.

The parcel has been appraised at $4.5 million, but the conservancy was able to negotiate a substantially reduced price because it can pay cash, Edmiston said.

The agreement was negotiated between the conservancy’s staff and representatives of property owner Rex Holland.

Chevron Corp. owns an estimated 1,300 acres near the Holland property and had planned on using the property for access to The Old Road, which parallels the Golden State Freeway, said Clark King, the conservancy’s deputy director.

But if the conservancy blocks the route through the Holland property by buying the land, that may encourage Chevron and other nearby property owners to sell their land for the park, King said. “I’ve made offers to three major landowners,” he said.

The Holland property would complement an adjacent 11 acres, known as the Avaness property, which the conservancy purchased in April for $2.3 million. That parcel also is zoned for commercial development.

Last December, the conservancy purchased 145 acres north of the Holland and Avaness parcels for $500,000. The conservancy dedicated the land last week as Towsley Canyon Park, calling it the start of the larger woodlands parks.

Towsley Canyon Park, at the mouth of Towsley Canyon, could hinder efforts by Los Angeles County sanitation officials to build a garbage dump in the canyon.

Edmiston said the Holland and Avaness properties however are not adjacent to Towsley Canyon Park and would not affect entry routes to the dump. In making the purchase, the conservancy is “not fighting a landfill battle,” he said.