Officials Pledge Preservation of Wilson Canyon : Sylmar: 500 rally against luxury housing plan. If they want open space, developer says he’s willing to sell.

Assemblyman Richard Katz and other local leaders vowed Saturday during a rally in Sylmar to preserve scenic Wilson Canyon as open space and to stop the building of 250 luxury homes in the woodland retreat.

“We will fight to preserve Wilson Canyon,” Katz (D-Sylmar) told more than 500 people who gathered in an Olive View Medical Center parking lot below the canyon. “We will do whatever we can, for as long as it takes. And in the end, Wilson Canyon will be saved.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who had remained neutral on the controversy, has pledged to keep development out of the canyon, officials said at the rally. The developer, Cantwell-Anderson Inc., had sought Bernardi’s assistance in annexing the property--now unincorporated county land--to the city.

“The councilman has rejected attempts to develop that property in the past, and he will continue to oppose them,” said David Mays, Bernardi’s chief deputy, as the crowd cheered.

Annexation would make it easier and less costly for Cantwell-Anderson to obtain fire, police and utility services. The land is far removed from county sheriff, fire and utility services.

A representative of County Supervisor Ed Edelman also told the audience that Edelman was opposed to the development.

Katz and others said the proposed development would threaten access to riding trails in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The opposition displayed at the rally did not seem to dampen the spirits of Cantwell-Anderson officials in attendance. Pete Postlmayr, a Sylmar resident and the development company’s manager of the proposed Wilson Canyon tract, said he was even glad to see the fervor of the crowd.

“This is fine,” he said. “If it gets things moving in the right direction, then we’re happy. We’re willing sellers, but if they want open space, they will have to buy the land. And no one has ever made us an offer.”

Postlmayr said state and local officials were more concerned about acquiring and preserving open space in Santa Monica and West Los Angeles than in the northeast Valley.

The project is a scaled-down version of a 500-home development the company proposed in 1987. After opposition to the development arose, the plan was reduced to 250 homes. About one-third of the houses will be designed for horse keeping, with three-quarter-acre lots, access to horse trails and a price tag of between $400,000 and $500,000.

Postlmayr repeated his claim at the rally that the development would be “the crown jewel of Sylmar.”

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Executive Director Joseph Edmiston said his agency wants to buy the canyon to complete the Rim of the Valley Trail that will eventually connect the mountain ranges surrounding the Valley, but does not yet have the funds.

Edmiston said he hoped to have a lower appraisal on the land by the end of summer. An appraisal last year put the land’s value at between $6 million and $6.5 million. The conservancy cannot pay more for the land under state law.

“What’s important about what’s happening here today is that the developer see the solidarity with the community and all the officials,” Edmiston said. “There is a determination that this will not be developed.” He added that he would not let the developer mislead the public by claiming the conservancy had not made an offer.