Credit for Park Funds Wasn’t Due to Soka

* The 50,000-member Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and other park supporters have long been working diligently in Washington to ensure congressional support for funds for Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Senate allocation of funds on July 27 to help purchase the beautiful and historic 314-acre Paramount Ranch was in fact done at the request and urging of park supporters--not Soka University, although Soka developers took credit for it.

Soka developers, the proponents of a 2-million-square-foot, multimillion-dollar massive development in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, certainly are not supportive of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and longstanding efforts of environmentalists to protect vital parklands in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Additionally, $4 million toward the purchase of Paramount Ranch is so far from the total amount needed (and originally requested) for Paramount Ranch that this reduced funding amount should instead be allocated to other worthy park projects in the national recreation area.

One example is Broome Ranch, a 640-acre property that sweeps through Point Mugu State Park to the Pacific Ocean and connects existing public lands in the area.

We are happy to receive congressional support to protect vital park and natural lands in this increasingly urban area of Los Angeles County.

But let’s work together to see that public funds are well spent, not earmarked for a project at a funding level that is totally unrealistic.

HOWARD STRAUSS

Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter