SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS : Recreation Area Due to Get Less Federal Funding in ’94

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area will receive $4 million next year under the terms of a U.S. House and Senate conference committee agreement--considerably less than the urban park has received for any fiscal year since 1988.

The $4 million figure in the Department of the Interior appropriations bill was expected because the House and Senate had voted to appropriate that sum for the recreation area. This will be the first time in six years that the recreation area will not receive the most money of any national park unit.

Nevertheless, park supporters said they are pleased. “I feel very good about it,” said Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), a leading House proponent. “No matter how you slice it, there’s just very little money nationwide for acquisition of new parkland.”

The conference bill specifies that the $4 million can be used to help buy properties in Broome Ranch, south of Newbury Park; Zuma and Trancas canyons; upper Topanga Canyon; Paramount Ranch, the former site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire; and along the Backbone Trail that traverses the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Park to Point Mugu.