STUDIO CITY : Fryman Canyon Preservation Urged

It’s not the biggest piece of land on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy wish list, but neighbors of a 32-acre parcel in the hills above Studio City say it’s just as important.

“It’s a vital link in the parks system,” said Nancy Pohl, president emeritus of the Briarcliff Improvement Assn., which has been leading an effort to save the pristine parcel from being developed.

Wedged between several plots of publicly owned land in the hills between Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon, the parcel is one of five the conservancy hopes to purchase using funds raised by selling Los Angeles County bonds.

The County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on release of bond money for the purchase of the five parcels, which make up a total of 570 acres proposed for development in the hills between Topanga and Laurel canyons.

Pohl said her group has gathered about 1,000 signatures supporting the conservancy’s purchase of land in the Little Fryman Canyon area south of Studio City, and will continue gathering names until the supervisors’ meeting.

“We’ve been fighting for this for years, and we’re not going to stop now,” Pohl said. “This is very important to us.”

The conservancy wants to buy the Studio City parcel because its owner, who wants to sell it, is considering building a house there.

And while it would just be a single house, neighbors say the entire lot would be ruined because a ridge would be pushed into the canyon to make the ground level for construction, and a 1,000-foot cement-walled driveway would be cut into the property.

“If you just go up and build a house that’s one thing,” Pohl said. “But if you go in and desecrate 30 acres to build a house, I think people have a right to complain.”

But the fact that the property owner is willing to sell makes it a high priority for purchase by the conservancy. A main aim of the conservancy is increasing accessibility to the mountains.

Other purchases up for consideration are the 419-acre site of the proposed Mulholland Hills Estates in the Corbin Canyon area, the 63-acre site of the proposed Woodland Hills Estates near the western end of unpaved Mulholland Drive, a 52-acre site in the hills south of Dixie Canyon Avenue in Sherman Oaks, and four acres of Elrita Bowl next to Laurel Canyon Park.