Braude Under Fire for Plan to Pave Road Across Parkland : Tarzana: Protesters at the councilman’s office fear that the surfacing of Mulholland Drive will follow.

About 20 demonstrators Friday picketed the Tarzana office of City Councilman Marvin Braude to denounce a plan to pave an extension of Reseda Boulevard across parkland in the hills above Tarzana.

The sign-carrying protesters denounced Braude for failing to extract a no-paving promise from city officials.

They described the connector road as a toe in the door for paving Mulholland Drive and thereby fueling development of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The protest was part of a long-running dispute over a mandate by the city that a developer punch Reseda Boulevard all the way through to Mulholland Drive.

The requirement, a condition of approval of a luxury-homes development, would extend Reseda beyond the project and over Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy land and 650 feet of Topanga State Park.

Protesters said their quarrel is with Braude and city officials, not the development firm, Harlan Lee & Associates, which would be happy to forgo the paving.

Earlier this year, the Lee firm, which is building 178 houses, halted roadwork at the state park boundary to give city and state officials a chance to resolve the dispute.

In a letter to interested constituents, Braude said city fire and public works officials have decided they cannot accept several changes sought by state officials.

According to Braude, the city is willing to reduce the width of part of the road and to eliminate street lights on the state park property.

Braude said it would also consider putting a gate across the road to allow unrestricted access to emergency vehicles only.

But Braude said city officials have refused the state’s request to leave the road unpaved and to allow the grade to exceed a city standard of 15%.

To meet the 15% limit, extensive grading would be needed at Mulholland to lower its elevation about 10 feet.

Jill Swift, one of the protesters, accused Braude of only pretending to be powerless to deal with city bureaucrats.

They don’t “run his office,” she said. “He runs their offices.”

Braude called the criticism “grossly unfair.”

In a telephone interview, he said he had “exerted a great deal of pressure to minimize . . . intrusions” on state parklands. “I’ve been doing everything I can . . . without endangering the public safety.”

Asked if the city’s decision is final, Braude predicted more discussions aimed at resolving the dispute.

The Reseda extension was ordered a decade ago when the housing project was approved.

City officials have said an alternate route is needed for residents to escape, and fire trucks to attack, fires.

Opponents contend that would make sense only if Mulholland were paved as well.

“If in fact Mulholland will never be paved, why are we putting 30-foot-wide . . . connectors to it?” Dan Preece, a state parks official who opposes the paving, asked in an interview.

State parks officials have said they may go to court, if necessary, to block encroachment on their land, over which the city has an easement to build a road.

Braude has declined to say if he favors paving Mulholland.

He thus has run afoul of two zealous constituent groups with conflicting goals for the road.

One group, represented by Friday’s protesters, is passionate about keeping the seven miles between Encino and Woodland Hills as an unpaved road.

A second vocal group, in Encino, wants Mulholland paved and used as a commuter road.

This, they believe, would siphon away West Valley traffic that now clogs their neighborhood streets en route to the San Diego Freeway.

A new planning study on the proposed Mulholland Gateway Park near the Mulholland crest is another volatile element in the mix.

The study, commissioned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, characterized Mulholland as part of “the Big Wild”--18,500 acres of wildlife habitat that includes Topanga State Park and other public lands.

To preserve the Big Wild, the study says, Mulholland should never be paved, and the dirt portion should be gated at night to keep out vehicle traffic.

Braude said Friday he was “very impressed” by the study.

But he said he is not ready to announce his stand on paving Mulholland.