Rare Wildflower Won’t Stand in Way of Land Sale : Westlake Village: Some had hoped the presence of the plant would block plans for 492 lakeside acres. But it falls one level below federal protection.

Over the objections of environmentalists, a federal agency on Thursday removed the barriers to selling a developer land in Westlake Village where a rare, and possibly endangered, wildflower grows.

The action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. clears the way for the purchase of 492 acres around Westlake Reservoir by the Irvine-based Baldwin Co., which wants to build 330 luxury homes near the lake’s rugged shore.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy had asked the FDIC to delay the sale of the property because it is home to Pentachaeta lyonii , a wispy yellow flower native to the Santa Monica Mountains.

Conservancy officials had argued that the FDIC should sell the property to them because federal guidelines require the agency to offer land on which endangered species are found to groups dedicated to protecting wildlife and preserving open space.

But because the flower falls one step below formal protection in the federal government’s complicated classification system, the FDIC responded that it was under no obligation to halt the sale to Baldwin. The flower is considered threatened, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists in Ventura are preparing the paperwork necessary to change its status to protected, but it has not yet been placed on the list.

Even if the flower had been on the list, the FDIC said in a letter to Beilenson that it would not have been required to abide by the regulations because it was holding the land as a receiver of property formerly owned by a failed bank, and not as a federal agency. For that reason, the FDIC was subject to rules that apply only to commercial banks.

“When acting as a receiver for a failed institution, the FDIC is not a federal agency,” account officer Peter Morgan said in an interview. “The FDIC does not want to come across as environmentally insensitive. . . . Our job is to liquidate assets, and we expect the local community to protect the species.”

Peter Ireland, assistant executive officer for Mountains Recreation Conservation Area, an arm of the conservancy, blasted the decision, saying it demonstrates that the federal government has little commitment to protecting the environment.

“They are bound to follow the law, whatever they choose to call themselves,” he said. “They are turning a blind eye to everything. They are saying they don’t give a damn about environmental statutes. They are going to go blindly ahead to cut a deal with a developer who is determined to destroy this sensitive area.”

Ireland said the conservancy, a state agency that acquires parkland, has been authorized by its board to sue to obtain the property, which is on the western fringe of Westlake Village.

“We are not viewing this as the end at all,” Ireland said angrily. “I think very clearly they have set a tone for the next stage of negotiations, which places this agency in an uncomfortable position of being forced to protect its interest and the public interest against another public agency.”

A Baldwin executive declined to comment, saying he had not seen Thursday’s decision.

Although most Westlake Village residents probably had never even heard of the tiny flower a month ago, in recent weeks many had rallied to its defense to thwart Baldwin’s plans for the property.

Before Baldwin can build houses around the artificially created lake, which supplies emergency drinking water for Westlake Village residents, it must buy the land from the FDIC, which acquired the property in 1989 from the failed Vernon Savings & Loan.

Conservancy officials had sought to use the flower to block the sale. The question was whether the federal regulations aimed at protecting endangered species cover P. lyonii .

“That property is a living natural history museum,” Ireland said. “This is a rare and unique plant found only in the Santa Monica Mountains. This site may, in fact, be the genesis of the entire population.”

Baldwin executives, however, said that Ireland and other opponents of the project were misleading people into believing that the flower is endangered and should be protected.

“The question is whether the property is worthy of protection,” Baldwin Vice President Bob Burns said. “We don’t think it is. . . . There are no federally protected plants or species on the property. Just because someone thinks this should be registered as a protected species doesn’t make it one.”

It remains a battle with many fronts.

As the conservancy attempted to block the sale, residents of the posh suburb are criticizing Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which owns and operates the reservoir, for agreeing to a land swap that they say assures the project’s success and threatens to contaminate the lake.

Some members of the Westlake Village General Plan Advisory Committee, a citizens group charged with updating the city’s development blueprint, are trying to rezone the property to allow fewer houses. And one group of opponents broached the subject of recalling three City Council members but quickly backed down.

But it was P. lyonii , a miniature variety of sunflower, that became the common banner of Baldwin’s opponents. The straggly flower is no stranger to controversy. Last year, the conservancy sued to stop a development near Lake Eleanor because P. lyonii was found on the site. And construction of the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley was held up briefly by environmentalists who rallied around P. lyonii .

In almost every case, however, developers have been allowed to go ahead with their plans by promising to protect P. lyonii and by stressing the economic benefits of their projects to the community, said Tim Thomas, rare plants chairman for the California Native Plants Society.

“We are erasing these things permanently from the face of the Earth,” he said. “How do you compensate for that? The answer is, you can’t.”

In this most recent battle, Baldwin executives last year began exclusive negotiations with the FDIC to buy the property for an undisclosed price. Conservancy officials immediately sought to stop the deal.

The problem was that although conservancy officials suspected that the property contained species that would qualify as endangered, they had no proof. So they persuaded the FDIC to hold off on further negotiations with Baldwin while a small army of professional and amateur biologists swarmed the site to catalogue its plant and animal life.

They thought they had struck gold--literally--with P. lyonii .

Burns argued that since the flower is not formally protected, it should not stand in the way of his company’s acquisition of the property. Ireland countered that by the time the flower makes the arduous trip through the federal bureaucracy, it may be added to the list of extinct species instead of the list of endangered species.

Baldwin’s original plans called for the houses to be built right up to the shore of the lake, which would be used for boating and fishing. Since the lake is used as a drinking water reservoir, Baldwin modified its proposal at the water district’s request to exclude recreational activities.

But residents still complained that motor oils and fertilizers from the project could contaminate the lake. The water district shared those fears and earlier this year agreed to the swap with Baldwin so that houses were not built at the reservoir’s edge.

Ireland and others contend that the swap removed the single strongest environmental argument against the project--the potential contamination of drinking water.

Water district attorney Wayne Lemieux said the executive board approved the swap to guarantee that the reservoir would be protected. “They had a project that had environmental problems,” Lemieux said. “I don’t think you can blame us for the project if we do our job to get the problems addressed. It was a matter of playing brinkmanship and possibly losing.”

On another front, Virginia Drasnin, a member of the city’s general plan advisory committee, is leading a charge to stop the project by reducing the zoning on the property to allow fewer houses or to preserve the area as open space.

So far, she has had little success with that argument and has joined the conservancy’s fight on behalf of P. lyonii .

“People are pooh-poohing this little flower,” Drasnin said. “But we’ve got to start somewhere.”

Closeup of a Flower * Name: Pentachaeta lyonii

* Description: A yellow fingertip-size variety of sunflower native to the Santa Monica Mountains.

* Status: Classified as endangered, the flower is not on the list of federally protected species.

* One view: “This is a rare and unique plant found only in the Santa Monica Mountains. This site may, in fact, be the genesis of the entire population.”

--Peter Ireland, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy

* Another view: “There are no federally protected plants or species on the property. . . . Just because someone thinks this should be registered as a protected species, doesn’t make it one.”

--Bob Burns, the Baldwin Co.