Supervisor Criticized Over Plan to Restrict Use of Park Funding

Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana is seeking to limit the use of $40 million in voter-approved funds for parks, proposing conditions that critics say could allow more development in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Park advocates and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy on Thursday criticized Dana’s proposals, saying they already acceded to certain restrictions on the use of the money before voters approved Proposition A in November.

The property assessment measure will generate $540 million countywide for park acquisition and improvements, including $40 million for projects proposed by the conservancy, a state parks agency.

Under terms of the measure, the conservancy’s acquisitions must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and are subject to a host of conditions. For instance, the conservancy cannot use the money to purchase property from unwilling sellers through eminent domain, including land near Calabasas that the agency is trying to seize by condemnation from Soka University. The conservancy also cannot buy property that would block entry to or otherwise interfere with a proposed county landfill.

Dana, taking advantage of the board’s power to set additional conditions, has proposed that the conservancy be required to allow roads to be built across any parkland acquired with the funds. The conservancy has been involved recently in land transactions in Agoura and Calabasas, and has signaled its intent to block the widening or construction of new roads there.

Dana has also proposed that the conservancy be required to pay the full price of any parkland it acquires at the time of purchase, potentially restricting the number of parks that could be developed. That provision also has the potential of reducing the conservancy’s ability to buy the Soka land because money set aside for that purpose might have to be used for the Proposition A projects, a conservancy spokeswoman said.

“Deane Dana is breaking faith with the voters by putting new conditions on the Prop. A money,” said Elden Hughes, a spokesman for the Sierra Club. “These changes are the result of lobbying by developers and Soka University.”

Not so, countered Don Knabe, Dana’s chief deputy.

“We bought off on Prop. A because we understood we could fine-tune it at a later point, and that time is now,” Knabe said.

The restrictions are not intended to spur development by allowing roads to be built or to block the conservancy’s acquisition of Soka land, he said.

“We’re not trying to play roads off of parks,” Knabe said. “But it’s important to at least preserve the county’s easements. You might be OK without a road now, but 20 years from now, you might need it because of traffic congestion.”

With regard to the no-down-payment policy, the conservancy should have to pay the full price of land up front or at least pay its debts within a short period of time out of fairness to landowners, he said.

“Historically, the conservancy has put down a down payment and then let some landowners hang out to dry for years,” Knabe said. “It’s a good way to unfairly tie up a piece of property. We say things should be on a level playing field.”

In anticipation of a public hearing on the issue Sept. 21, the conservancy is trying to craft a compromise that would allow it to move ahead immediately with all but two of its 25 proposed projects.

The other supervisors have reservations about Dana’s proposal, their deputies said.

“It seems to be pretty much pro-development,” said Robert Alaniz, a spokesman for Supervisor Gloria Molina, who is on vacation this week. “It goes a little too far.”

“Instead of a blanket restriction on roads, it should be done on a case-by-case basis,” said David Michaelson, planning and development deputy for Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents the mountain region.

The conservancy needs the board’s approval soon because it is depending on the funds to pay a $6-million installment on a loan to buy the former site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura, said Belinda Faustinos, the conservancy’s deputy director.