Santa Monicas Dream Still Worth Pursuing : Rep. Beilenson Keeps Park Acquisition a High Priority

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) went before a congressional subcommittee Thursday, asking for $20 million in funds to acquire more land for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The prospects appear bleak to say the least. The Clinton Administration has included no new money in its budget for expanded Santa Monica Mountains parkland, and the amount that it has suggested for park acquisition nationwide is the smallest in years.

That is not good news for a national project that was established by law in 1978 with the hope of assembling some 36,000 acres of land in the Santa Monicas by 1983. Now, we are barely more than halfway there with about 18,045 acres. Is it time to give up hope on the dream of a great urban park that began in 1913 with the vision of engineer William Mulholland? The answer is no, and Congressman Beilenson is right to pursue more funding.

It’s true that park rangers need a Thomas Guide to negotiate these acres as much as they might need a compass at many other parks around the nation. It’s also true that many local residents are still unaware that a park even exists in the Santa Mountain Mountains. But the fact that the park shares boundaries with freeways, encroaching urban sprawl, and massive suburban housing developments is part of why it is so important to obtain more protected space now.

It is not likely, for example, that the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has even begun to reach a “minimum sustainable acreage” in terms of wildlife and habitat. By that we mean an amount of contiguous parkland that is sufficient to preserve natural resources and allow the wildlife within it to thrive. By some estimates, the amount of parkland in the Santa Monicas that is needed for that is at least 28,000 acres.

At the very least, it is therefore vital to continue to focus on the purchase of so-called “keystone” parcels that are essential to the park’s ecological well-being and crucial to establishing its identity.

Unfortunately, land acquisition quickly fell behind a reasonable pace in the recreation area’s earliest years, and the momentum has never been regained.

Although the park has invariably received the most federal money for land purchases of any park in the United States, dependable support from successive presidential administrations hasbeen iffy at best and may have entered a new round of disinterest. Also, land that could have been acquired for $1,500 to $2,000 an acre during the park’s early years now can cost $6,000 to $8,000 an acre, or more. For its part, Los Angeles County has often failed to do its fair share, such as in 1989 when it decided that a developer could build more housing than allowed by the county general plan on a 320-acre parcel of Agoura land. The higher density zoning made the property more expensive, and more difficult to purchase as parkland.

Two ongoing disputes also demonstrate the difficulties sometimes faced in obtaining more parkland. One is the Ahmanson Ranch plan in which thousands of acres of parkland would be transferred to the National Park Service, some of it to the Santa Monica National Recreation Area.

Continuing legal disputes prompted the Park Service to try to use the money it had earmarked for the Ahmanson project for another purchase. You can read one perspective on another dispute, involving Soka University, on our commentary page.

Despite such obstacles, it ought to be possible to strike a reasonable medium between future development and environmental interests in order to preserve more vital acreage for the park. The expansion of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a goal that continues to deserve strong local, state and federal support.