County Moves Closer to Putting Off-Road Park Near Agua Dulce : Recreation: An agreement calls for the purchase of 600 acres on both sides of Sierra Highway.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday firmed up its plans to locate an off-road vehicle park near Agua Dulce by approving an option agreement to purchase the land from a developer.

The agreement, which would only be executed if both state funding and a county environmental clearance are received, calls for the county to buy about 600 acres of land on both sides of Sierra Highway from developer Ray Watt. The value of the land, located in a sparsely populated area, has not been determined.

Peter Whittingham, deputy to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said two canyons involved in the proposal--Hume and Backer--already are being used illegally for off-road riding.

Whittingham said a previous plan to locate such a park on another piece of Watt property in Whitney Canyon, closer to the city of Santa Clarita, has been all but abandoned because of opposition from the city, environmentalists and Walt Disney Co., which feared noise from the park would interrupt filming on its movie ranch near there.

“We have set that aside indefinitely,” Whittingham said.

When the outcry about Whitney caused the county to look into the alternate Agua Dulce site in April, 1991, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) estimated that about $400,000 in county and state funds had already been spent on the Whitney Canyon analysis.

Enthusiasts of off-road motorcycles, dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles and jeeps had favored Whitney over a field of about 50 possible sites, but representatives of off-road vehicle clubs said last year they would be satisfied with the Agua Dulce location.

An appraisal of the Agua Dulce land has not been completed, so the option agreement includes the $17-million figure estimated for the Whitney acquisition.

State park and recreation officials have raised doubts in the past that such a large amount of money ever would be available. The state off-highway vehicle fund, financed through off-road vehicle license fees, has a budget of about $22 million a year, Whittingham said, but that fund is often tapped by the Legislature for other purposes.

So far, response to the proposed Sierra Highway site has been better, perhaps because riding already takes place on the property, Whittington said. He said an informal survey by Watt Land of residents near the site found widespread support for the plan.

“They found the people in the area are not only used to it, but many of them are the ones doing the riding,” he said.

However, Whittingham said further community canvassing would be completed before the county applies for state funding because Antonovich does not want to “go out and champion the site if there are going to be people knocking down our doors.”

If environmental analyses and public meetings provide the support Antonovich is seeking, Whittingham said, the county may seek state funding as soon as next year.