Group May Make Own Offer for Canyon : Parkland: After a separate appraisal, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy considers paying $8.75 million for the Fryman parcel.

Acting on a new appraisal, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Board debated Monday whether to offer the owner of Fryman Canyon in Studio City $8.75 million for the land to keep it from being developed.

The conservancy, a state parklands agency, received an appraisal Monday for that amount, $2.15 million less than Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Michael Woo were prepared to pay for the property two months ago.

The conservancy’s board met Monday night to discuss offering that sum to Fred Sahadi, owner of the 63-acre canyon, on behalf of a coalition made up of the state, the city and private interests, with the conservancy putting up $6.7 million of its own money.

Sahadi’s representatives said he would not accept such a price but would accept the Bradley-Woo offer.

Sahadi originally planned to build 26 luxury houses on the steeply sloped canyon located north of Mulholland Drive. Environmentalists, slow-growth activists and city officials want to preserve the site for parkland.

Bradley and Woo unveiled a plan Sept. 8 to buy the canyon for $10.9 million, saying that it was the minimum Sahadi would accept.

The appraisal the conservancy received Monday was the first full-blown evaluation of the land by appraisers hired exclusively by the conservancy. A previous appraisal, paid for jointly by Sahadi and the conservancy, set the canyon’s value at $13.7 million, an amount state purchasing officials later rejected as being $5 million too high.

Since early this year, environmental activists with help from Bradley and other lawmakers have engaged in a strident and highly publicized campaign to block Sahadi’s plans for the canyon.

At one juncture, Sahadi’s foes tried to have the canyon declared a cultural-historic landmark and used a Mercedes-Benz to block the developer’s workers from entering the property. During the lengthy fracas, it was also learned that several years ago city officials allowed Sahadi to obtain city development permits without first donating half of Fryman Canyon to the conservancy, as initially required by the agreement authorizing the permits.

The recommendation discussed Monday night by conservancy Director Joseph T. Edmiston calls for the conservancy to spend $6.7 million of its own money on the Fryman acquisition. But it also is predicated on the city of Los Angeles contributing $1.96 million toward the purchase price and on private parties donating $90,000, to make the total offer $8.75 million.

Edmiston’s plan also would require the city to sell surplus property--possibly owned by the Department of Water and Power--to pay for its share of the cost instead of tapping a $1.96-million trust fund set aside to purchase additional property around Runyon Canyon Park in Hollywood.

Edmiston argued that the trust fund is made up of state money and thus would not be a genuine contribution from the city.

On Sept. 8, Bradley and Woo, in whose district Fryman Canyon is located, unveiled a $10.9-million purchase plan under which the conservancy would have contributed $8.7 million, the city $1.96 million--from the Runyon Canyon fund--and private donors $240,000.

The Bradley-Woo offer was acceptable to Sahadi, who had contended that his property was worth $13.7 million.

But Edmiston protested that the transaction might be illegal because the price was negotiated rather than based on an appraisal as required by state law.