Supervisors to Seek State OK for Off-Road Park

Los Angeles County supervisors agreed Tuesday to seek state approval for an off-road vehicle park above Canyon Country, despite complaints from neighbors that the resulting traffic, noise and erosion would destroy their rural lifestyle.

“The dirt bikers who come out of the city . . . have no personal stake in our community,” said Rod Donkin, who lives on Baker Canyon Road near the proposed park site. “It will compromise everything about our lives, forever.”

The proposal, which includes purchasing two parcels of land owned by developer Ray Watt in Hume and Baker canyons off Sierra Highway, will be among those considered for funding by the state Department of Parks and Recreation beginning Monday, county officials said.

If funded by the state, the plan to locate a park for dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles on 537 acres in the two canyons would still be required to undergo a thorough environmental review process, including public hearings, they said.

However, responding to the neighbors’ concerns at Tuesday’s board meeting, Supervisor Mike Antonovich asked the county Department of Parks and Recreation to also study two other sites. Those locations are Big Rock Wash near Pearblossom Highway in the Antelope Valley and Bee Canyon near the Soledad Canyon exit of the Antelope Valley Freeway.

“We’ve got to find a suitable site, one that’s going to have public support,” Antonovich said.

But Tuesday’s opposition made it clear that garnering public support for such a park may be nearly impossible. In fact, the county turned to Hume and Baker canyons in 1991 because a preferred location in Whitney Canyon generated so much controversy.

The park is needed, “but not necessarily appreciated by the neighbors,” said James I. Okimoto, senior assistant county parks director.

County officials have described the park as an important means of controlling illegal off-road riding, which often takes place on private property at greater risk to the riders.

Winthrop Taylor, a Baker Canyon Road resident, called the proposal “environmentally disastrous.” Donkin, one of Taylor’s neighbors, said the hills already suffer from tremendous erosion and landslide problems, causing the county to severely restrict building in the area.

“This is just going to create a far worse problem with mud and flood,” Donkin said. Barbara Waycott, secretary of the Lower Mint Canyon Property Owners Assn., said the park would add weekend traffic to the two-lane highway, which already carries large numbers of commuters from the Antelope Valley on weekdays.

Taylor and others accused Antonovich of having a conflict of interest in regard to the location of the park because he has accepted campaign donations from developer Watt. A review of campaign-finance statements from 1984 to 1991 indicate that Antonovich received at least $32,370 from Watt, his family and his employees. The other supervisors combined received more than $43,000.

Even though the county is applying for state funding for the park, there is no guarantee that the money will be granted, said county parks planner Barbara Koenig. Estimates for purchasing the land have ranged as high as $17 million, although Koenig said the actual appraisal probably will come in lower. The Hume and Baker canyon site was chosen from a list of 50 locations largely because of the access it provides to off-road trails in the Rowher Flats section of Angeles National Forest, Koenig said.