Canyon ‘Sacrifice’ Called Too High a Price for Fryman : Parkland: Pacific Palisades residents worry land sale that is part of deal to save Valley parcel will bring development and congestion.

Last January, Kurt Toppel thought the arrangement that enabled the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to acquire Fryman Canyon near Studio City for parkland was a good idea.

But now that he and others in a secluded Pacific Palisades neighborhood have learned that a 5.5-acre piece of wilderness in their own Marquez Canyon is part of the price tag, they have a different view.

“Our canyon is being sacrificed” because the city of Los Angeles “chose to work a deal someplace else,” said Toppel, president of the 400-member Marquez Knolls Neighborhood Assn. “We don’t think we should be asked to pay the price.”

Opponents acknowledge that it may be too late to thwart sale of the property but have pledged to fight its development tooth and nail.

Any zoning change would need the approval of Los Angeles officials. In addition, Marquez Canyon lies within the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission, which would have final authority over any development there.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which acquired the land in March from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as part of the complicated arrangement to finance the Fryman Canyon purchase, is now trying to sell it. As of a deadline last Monday, the agency had received three bids, including one from an apparent benefactor who expressed interest in buying the property and donating it as parkland on the condition that it remain undeveloped.

The other bidders were a private school interested in relocating from elsewhere in Pacific Palisades and a developer who wants to build single-family houses there, said Clark King, the conservancy’s deputy director. King declined to disclose the identity of bidders or how much was offered, saying the conservancy’s board will probably decide which, if any, of the bids to accept at a public meeting in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday.

The property is now zoned to allow up to five single-family houses to be built. But with the conservancy having set $2 million as the minimum bid, neighbors fear that would-be developers will almost certainly seek a zoning change to accommodate a denser project that would generate more traffic. And that, they insist, would ruin the serenity in their neighborhood of million-dollar homes.

“It never occurred to me that they would be swapping our canyon to help pay for another canyon,” said Margaret Goff, who has lived beside Marquez Canyon for 21 years. “I’m sure they feel Fryman is a top priority. But we think Marquez is a top priority.”

In acquiring 63-acre Fryman Canyon for $10.4 million--$1.7 million above its appraised value--the City Council in January approved a controversial transfer of four city-owned properties to the developer who had wanted to build in Fryman Canyon. The developer, Fred Sahadi, had wanted to massively grade Fryman Canyon, situated in the hills above Studio City, and build 26 luxury houses there.

The conservancy, a state agency whose officials had complained that the price for Fryman Canyon was too high, nonetheless was persuaded to come up with $8.7 million toward the cost.

To raise its share of the money, the agency took $2 million from a trust fund earmarked for park improvements in Temescal Canyon, also in Pacific Palisades. As part of the deal, the DWP transferred the 5.5 acres in Marquez Canyon to the conservancy. Proceeds from the sale are to be used to reimburse the trust fund.

“Somebody in all of this had to get hurt, and it looks like they want it to be us,” said Charles Beck, whose home overlooks Marquez Canyon and who heads Canyon Conscious Residents, a group that has pledged to fight any plan to develop the area.

Critics of the Marquez Canyon sale complain that despite the City Council’s approval in January of the arrangements, they only learned several weeks ago that Marquez would be affected.

They insist that the Fryman Canyon deal never should have been struck and that the conservancy should not be swapping one undeveloped canyon for another.

Beck also faulted Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents Pacific Palisades, for “being asleep at the wheel” in not protecting the canyon from potential development. Braude voted with the council majority to approve the Fryman Canyon acquisition. Cindy Miscikowski, an aide to Braude, said last week that because of its small size and relative inaccessibility, state officials have never considered acquiring Marquez Canyon for parkland a high priority.

Marquez Canyon consists of about 20 acres just north of Sunset Boulevard and east of Palisades Drive. Only about 7.5 acres in the bottom, long held by the DWP as surplus property, is considered suitable for development.

Some residents have expressed concern that a school may be interested in building in the canyon, bringing more traffic to the neighborhood north of Sunset Boulevard.

There are three elementary schools--one public and two private--in the neighborhood.

A conservancy spokeswoman, although sympathetic to opponents of the Marquez Canyon sale, said that “if funds were no object, it would be ideal to acquire all of the undeveloped canyon lands that have been identified as possible parkland.”

Julie Zeidner, the spokeswoman, defended the conservancy’s attempt to sell the land, saying that in making the acquisition of Fryman Canyon a priority, Los Angeles officials determined which properties would be sold or exchanged.