Micor Lobbies Parks Dept. to Withdraw Its Critique : Development: Although the evaluation should not affect the luxury housing tract, the company will discuss the project with officials.

Proponents of Micor Ventures’ luxury housing tract on the edge of Calabasas are pressing state parks director Donald W. Murphy to withdraw a letter that contends the project would harm Malibu Creek State Park and Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

Along with Micor president Michael Rosenfeld, the effort has been championed by Sacramento lobbyist and former GOP Assembly leader Bob Naylor. Naylor said his client is not Micor but “a highly concerned activist” whom he declined to name.

Rosenfeld and Naylor met last Friday in Sacramento with two of Murphy’s deputies.

“I went up there to make sure that the department . . . was fully informed” of the project’s sensitivity to the environment, Rosenfeld said.

Calabasas Mayor Bob Hill also attended the meeting, but could not be reached for comment.

The campaign to get Murphy to change his stance is a minor mystery, because the project--proposed by Micor Ventures, Inc.--has already won most critical approvals despite the parks department’s position. The goal might be to set bounds on the department’s involvement in local development issues.

In a July 7 letter to the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, Murphy said annexation of the Micor site by the city of Calabasas would trigger construction of 250 homes--”a three-fold increase” over county zoning limits.

Along with the letter, which proposed a scaled-down design, Murphy enclosed a lengthy critique of the project by the Angeles district of the parks department, which oversees Malibu Creek State Park and the lagoon.

A follow-up meeting is expected between Micor and Angeles district representatives to discuss purported inaccuracies in their critique.

“I was told that a number of our comments were incorrect, but not which ones,” said Dan Preece, district superintendent for the department.

Preece said the department was doing its job by critiquing the project.

“The only difference with the Micor project, when compared to others, . . . would be in the magnitude of our concern, in that this is a very large project across the road from our park,” Preece said.

A department spokesman said Murphy is standing by the letter, pending the outcome of the follow-up meeting.

“There’s been no instruction given to change our official position,” said Bob Hudson, state parks’ assistant director for public affairs.

The outcome of the flap could influence other development projects but may have no effect on Micor.

The project does not need the department’s endorsement. And it has already won approval from the city of Calabasas, pending absorption of the site by the city.

Despite Murphy’s letter, the Local Agency Formation Commission approved the annexation July 8. The commission is scheduled to vote again on Wednesday, but that appears to be a formality. The panel is legally required to take a second vote if anyone requests it.

Praised by some and damned by others, the Micor plan calls for construction of 250 luxury homes east of Las Virgenes Road. Supporters, including the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Calabasas city officials, point out that Micor plans to donate 639 acres to the Conservancy--more than two-thirds of the site--thus preserving most of an existing wildlife corridor.

Critics cite the large number of homes and loss of a canyon that serves as rich wildlife habitat.

Naylor said he arranged last Friday’s meeting after bumping into Bob White, Gov. Pete Wilson’s chief of staff, at a July 29 reception for U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin.

With the state in the throes of recession, the parks department’s animus toward the project “seemed to be contrary to what you might say is the basic thrust of the Wilson Administration,” Naylor said.

Naylor said White agreed to request a meeting, and that park officials called him two days later.