Parks Agency to Buy Land to Prevent Paving of Road

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was authorized Wednesday to spend $1.65 million to buy out a couple who want to pave a dirt road to their house through Malibu Creek State Park, possibly ending a 15-year battle between Tom and Pat Randa and state parks officials.

A formal offer will be made today to buy the Randas’ house and five acres just outside the park’s northwestern boundary near Malibu Lake, said Liz Cheadle, conservancy staff counsel.

Pat Randa declined to comment on the offer, saying she had received nothing in writing. The $1.65 million is the price the Randas had been asking for the property. They have said in the past that they want to sell the land and get on with their lives.

If accepted, the deal would eliminate the need for a hearing Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court to determine whether the Randas have the right to pave a mile-long road that is the only access to their house from Lookout Drive. Parks officials and neighbors want the road to remain unpaved.

Earlier this month, state parks officials secured a restraining order to prevent the Randas from paving the road until a judge could decide who has jurisdiction over it. The Randas claim that since they own an easement, giving them the right to use the road, they are entitled to make any improvements they deem necessary, including paving.

Parks officials, who have long coveted the Randa property, have worked feverishly in the last three months to buy it and prevent any changes to the road. One deal that was considered involved buying out the Randas and several adjacent property owners as part of a land swap in upper Corral Canyon.

But delays in those negotiations prompted the conservancy to seek an emergency loan from the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to make an offer to the Randas before Friday’s hearing. Cheadle said that if the alternative deal can be completed before escrow closes on the Randa property, then that money would be used and the loan would be unnecessary.