Road Link to Be Built Over Park Protests : Environment: Citing what they call an inadequate report, state officials say they still hope to obtain a court order to stop construction on Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive.

A developer is expected to begin extending Reseda Boulevard into Topanga State Park today despite a last-ditch attempt by state parks officials to halt the work pending an environmental review.

Parks officials said Wednesday that they still hope to obtain a court order blocking road construction in the park by Harlan Lee & Associates. The company is building Mulholland Park, a large residential tract in the hills above Tarzana near the state park’s northern edge.

“The attorney general does seem to feel that we may have a case, but they are not going to be able to get any kind of restraining order by tomorrow morning,” said Suzanne Goode, associate research ecologist with the Santa Monica Mountains district of the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

The department will send observers to monitor work at the site today while continuing to talk with the attorney general’s office, said Neil Braunstein, district planner for the state parks department.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Douglas B. Noble said he is looking into the matter but otherwise declined comment.

Harlan Lee has said it would be happy to forgo the Reseda extension, but is required to connect Reseda to Mulholland Drive--and even pave 200 feet of Mulholland--to satisfy a condition of development approvals. Over bitter objections from local homeowners and environmentalists, Los Angeles city officials required the road construction, saying it was needed to improve access and egress in the event of fire.

“It wasn’t our idea to put Reseda Boulevard in,” said Peter Lee, project superintendent for the 178-house development. “We’d love for them to stop us” because it would “cost us less money to develop the property.”

Reseda is now a narrow fire trail above the development. The route is to be paved to a width of 30 feet within a city easement that climbs to the Mulholland crest through land owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and a 700-foot swath of Topanga State Park.

Parks officials said the legality of the easement is not in dispute, but rather the failure of the city to consider the impact of requiring a paved road on state parkland.

“Roads through state parks are not something we would like to see unless we feel it serves the interests of the park visitors” or park resources, Goode said. “Roads almost never serve the interests of the resources,” she said.

However, Goode said a legal challenge would be based on alleged failure to assess the effects of the road as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. She said the issue is not discussed in the environmental impact report for Mulholland Park, which was prepared a decade ago.

The developer had agreed to give 48 hours notice before starting construction on park property. The firm notified parks officials Tuesday that work would begin this morning. Lee said initial work would be limited to grading along the existing fire trail, with paving to start in a few weeks.

This is the latest skirmish in a battle that began in 1989, when demonstrators chained themselves to bulldozers to protest the Reseda extension and Mulholland paving. Critics said the improvements will not enhance fire safety, but increase pressure for housing and landfill development in the mountains.

At the urging of the protesters, City Councilman Marvin Braude initially said he would seek to drop the extension. However, Braude later endorsed it after he came under attack from residents of Encino neighborhoods where there is heavy commuter traffic to the San Diego Freeway. They want Mulholland paved to siphon off cars headed for the freeway.