Canyon Saved for Use In Park : Conservation: City Council approves land swap to make Fryman property part of Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area. The deal is valued at $10.4 million.

The marathon campaign to save Fryman Canyon from development crossed the finish line at City Hall on Friday with approval of a land swap essential to a $10.4-million deal to turn the 63-acre Studio City property into a park.

“The fat lady finally sang today, and it was amazingly easy,” said a relieved Councilman Michael Woo, after the Los Angeles City Council’s unanimous vote that will enable the canyon, which falls in his district, to eventually become part of the federal Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area.

In per-acre cost, Fryman is “the most expensive” Santa Monica Mountains parkland purchase ever, said Joseph T. Edmiston Jr., executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Still needed for the property to become parkland is a vote by the conservancy board next Tuesday to reaffirm its commitment to contribute $6.7 million to the purchase. “There’ll be no hitch,” vowed conservancy President Carole Stevens.

Fryman Canyon, located north of Mulholland Drive and east of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, is crossed by the Betty B. Dearing Trail, a popular hiking path, and contains a small stream.

To complete the complex deal, the council Friday transferred title of four city-owned parcels in the Santa Monica Mountains to developer Fred Sahadi, whose plan to massively grade Fryman Canyon and build 26 luxury homes triggered protests from environmentalists.

Sahadi now is expected to try to develop his new parcels, which total 6.5 acres and are valued at $1.7 million. He also will get $8.7 million for relinquishing Fryman.

Friday’s vote was anti-climactic, with no debate. But memories lingered of the often theatrical controversy over the land.

“It has been a nightmare for my client,” said Ben Reznik, the attorney for Sahadi, who was sued by the conservancy for allegedly defrauding the city and accused by City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky of using political influence to get more for his land than it was worth.

Leading the charge to thwart Sahadi’s project was a makeshift group of politically naive professional women, calling themselves the Urban Wilderness Coalition, who did not know how to give up, said Barbara Blinderman, an attorney for environmental and homeowner groups.

When the Fryman activists “came to me (a year ago) for help, I said, ‘There’s nothing that can be done,’ ” Blinderman recalled.

The problem, she noted, was that Sahadi, who had been working to get his $25-million project approved for almost a decade, was only lacking a grading permit to begin construction. It appeared to be “a done deal,” she said.

“You have no idea what a lift this is for me to see what’s happened,” Blinderman said Friday as she joined a handful of Fryman die-hards in the council chambers. “It’s amazing.”

Even Reznik tipped his hat to the environmentalists. “Here was a project with all its approvals and was days away from construction, and they stopped it dead in its tracks,” he said.

“It’s been like being on a yo-yo,” said Daryce Richman-Cooper, one of the founders of the Urban Wilderness group. An actress-singer, she once used her Mercedes-Benz to temporarily block Sahadi’s construction crew from entering Fryman Canyon.

The group also sought to have the council designate the canyon as a city cultural-historic monument and staged vigils to prevent construction crews from entering the site.

“We always thought it was kind of a magical canyon,” said Alan Kishbaugh, another of the Fryman regulars. “How else to explain how 10 little pipsqueaks could make this happen?”