Conservancy’s New Offer for Land Rejected : Parkland: The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy offers $8.7 million for land in Fryman Canyon, but the developer says it isn’t enough.

Directors of an environmental agency voted 6 to 0 Monday night to spend $8.7 million to buy rustic--and expensive--Fryman Canyon above Studio City.

But a representative for the owner, developer Fred Sahadi, said that probably won’t be enough money to preserve the steep, wooded canyon, filled with live oak and walnut trees.

After a lengthy debate over the fate of the canyon, the six board members of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy said they would ask the city of Los Angeles to chip in its own money to make up any difference between the conservancy’s offer and Sahadi’s price. But a representative for Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, whose district encompasses the area, told the board that it will be difficult for the city to come up with the extra money.

That would appear to put the fate of the 63-acre canyon property in question once again. Sahadi has previously announced his intention to build 26 luxury homes on the property, located on the north side of Mulholland Drive near Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

The acquisition of Fryman Canyon by the conservancy, a quasi-state agency, has been a priority for Westside environmentalists and for Woo.

The debate over Fryman developed urgency after Sahadi began this spring to make preparations to build on his property. The conservancy and Woo’s office have been negotiating with Sahadi during the past few weeks over the price.

In remarks Monday night, Woo emphasized the accessibility of the property to inner-city residents.

He called the site “certainly more accessible than the location we are in right now,” referring to the conservancy board meeting site at the Diamond X Ranch, a park area on Mulholland Highway between Malibu Canyon and Las Virgenes roads.

Barbara S. Blinderman, an environmental attorney, told the conservancy board members that Fryman Canyon would build an inner-city constituency for the Santa Monica Mountains.

“It will make the Santa Monicas legitimate to the entire city,” she said.

But the high cost has been a problem, causing an agonizing internal debate within the conservancy’s ranks, according to insiders. Buying the canyon will drain the conservancy’s budget and close the possibility of making other parkland purchases.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, did not indicate what his recommendation was to the board before it went into private session last night. However, during his public comments Edmiston said that the final price for Fryman might force the recision of other planned parkland purchases by the conservancy. He did not identify what proposed acquisitions might have to be dropped.

However, a Sierra Club member testified that there was concern that the acquisition of Fryman Canyon might jeopardize the conservancy’s plan to buy Upper Solstice Canyon, which is near Malibu Creek State Park.

“Upper Solstice should not be sacrificed,” said Bob Garsen, a member of the Sierra Club’s Santa Monica Mountains task force.

Officials had said earlier that the purchase price of the property could be determined through binding arbitration, with the conservancy obligated to pay no more than $13.7 million for the land, which is the amount an appraisal for Sahadi claimed the land is worth.

But the board balked at paying anything over $8.7 million on Monday. That is the amount state appraisers have said the property is worth.

The highest per-acre amount ever paid by the conservancy went to buy 11 acres in Towsley Canyon in June for $2.8 million. This land, the gateway to the proposed Santa Clarita Woodlands State Park, sold for $254,545 per acre.

If the purchase does go through, the Fryman Canyon property, however, may be the conservancy’s most expensive purchase to date.

Although the entire site consists of 63 acres, the conservancy has been legally entitled to half the property since 1986. The tentative $8.7-million sales price comes out to nearly $272,000 per acre for the remaining 32 acres.

Besides the woods, Fryman appears to contain a perennial stream--whether it is fed by natural sources or by yard runoff is a matter of dispute. For many years, the conservancy has maintained a lookout point on Mulholland Drive from which sweeping vistas of the San Fernando Valley can be seen.

Sahadi, co-owner of the state’s largest horse-breeding farm, has always been ready to sell his property to the conservancy. But the price tag has always been too high.

As construction on the land neared, nature-lovers asked the city to set a precedent and declare the Fryman property--named after an early Los Angeles developer, Harry Fryman--a cultural-historic monument. Under city law, such a monument can be protected for up to a year from alteration or development.

After lengthy hearings, the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission declared more than 31 acres of the site a monument. However, this was the same 31 acres that Sahadi had agreed to dedicate as open space and transfer to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in return for the right to build luxury homes on the rest of the property.

The City Council still has not decided whether to declare any part of the canyon a monument.

During a recent session, council members were surprised to learn from newspaper reports that the developer had never transferred the 31 acres of open space to the conservancy and that Sahadi planned to build a temporary road across this same plot to accommodate his grading plans.