Deal Aims for Park Instead of Landfill : Towsley Canyon: Planners and environmentalists envision the site as a key part of a Santa Clarita Valley wilderness recreation area.

A state parks agency and a private developer have joined forces to buy land that could hinder development of a proposed dump in Towsley Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley and boost prospects for a big new state park there, officials confirmed Monday.

The complex deal calls for Rivendale Ranch Associates to acquire for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy 271 acres in Towsley Canyon that the agency cannot purchase directly.

In return, the development firm, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, would get an infusion of cash and take a step toward having a wilderness park, not a trash dump, for a neighbor.

Towsley is one of four canyons ringing the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys that was recently identified by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts as a suitable landfill site.

However, park planners and environmentalists also envision the canyon as a key part of a proposed Santa Clarita Woodlands State Park stretching north from the Santa Susana Mountains above Granada Hills into the Santa Clarita Valley. As a result, the conservancy, a state parks agency, has been competing with the sanitation districts for land there.

A long-awaited feasibility study on the proposed state park is expected to be released today by the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

The 271-acre tract lies in the area that the sanitation districts want for a dump just west of the Golden State Freeway, near the city of Santa Clarita.

Joel Brandon, a co-owner of the property, said Monday that he and his partners have agreed to sell the land to Rivendale for $4.5 million.

The districts have purchased options on at least 1,500 acres in Towsley Canyon, but are still competing with the conservancy for the Brandon tract in the heart of the canyon.

However, officials of the districts said Monday that the deal, if consummated, would not make development of a dump impossible.

Steve Maguin, solid waste chief for the districts, said he was disappointed about the deal but added, “I don’t want to comment on how important Brandon is because it’s intimate to the negotiations.” If the conservancy were to acquire the Brandon tract, “it would probably affect our plan,” Maguin said. “I guarantee you it would not kill our plan . . . to fill the canyon.”

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, said the deal was not struck to thwart the districts. “We’re buying it for the park beauties, and it would be a high priority to acquire whether there’s a landfill there or not,” he said.

The Rivendale-Brandon-conservancy deal, which could cost the conservancy $7 million, is still contingent on approval by the conservancy’s board, which could vote on the issue next week. It also depends on an as-yet uncompleted appraisal of 20 acres of Rivendale land that the conservancy would also buy.

Owners of the Brandon property had sought $4.5 million, a price the conservancy legally could not pay. State law bars the agency from paying more for land than the appraised value, and an appraisal pegged the property’s worth at $3.5 million.

To come up with the extra $1 million for Brandon, the conservancy struck a deal with Rivendale. The conservancy is to pay Rivendale $3.5 million for a 20-acre tract near the mouth of Towsley Canyon. Rivendale essentially would keep $2.5 million and apply the other $1 million of sale funds toward purchase of the Brandon property. That $1 million, plus another $3.5 million from the conservancy--the money the state agency is able to pay--would allow Rivendale to pay the $4.5 million asked for the Brandon property.

Rivendale would then give the land to the conservancy.

Officials said they did not know what would happen if the appraisal of Rivendale’s 20 acres comes in under $3.5 million. “What happens is we’re back to the drawing board,” said Monroe Shearer, president of Rivendale. “I don’t know what the resolution would be.”

Julie Zeidner, a spokeswoman for the conservancy, said she hoped that Rivendale would negotiate if the appraisal came in lower. “They’re in financial straits right now, so they have incentive to negotiate with us.”

Rivendale wants to build a 58-acre commercial and residential development along the Old Road near the entrance to Towsley Canyon. The company earlier sold the conservancy 145 acres at the mouth of the canyon for an apparently below-market $500,000 in hopes of denying trash trucks access to the canyon.

Both Rivendale and the conservancy assumed that that sale would deny the trucks access to the canyon, but districts officials said they had an alternate route. The conservancy-Rivendale agreement represents a second attempt to assure that the canyon becomes a park instead of a dump.

While unwilling to criticize the landfill plan, Shearer of Rivendale made clear the proposed development would be better off without a dump for a neighbor.

“I like the value of the park,” Shearer said. “I like what the park does for our development. They are a good neighbor to us.”