Santa Monicas to Get $4 Million Allocation : Parks: Backers of the national recreation area praise the 1994 amount. But it’s less than any year since 1988.

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

The $4 million was expected since both the House and Senate had voted to appropriate that amount for the recreation area. It will be the first time in six years that the Santa Monicas will not receive the most money of any national park unit.

Nevertheless, park supporters said they were 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.”

At the same time, park advocates amended the Interior appropriations bill, which at one time had stipulated that the funds could be used only to buy Paramount Ranch in Agoura, the former site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.

Park backers had originally asked for funding needed to complete the Paramount purchase. Los Angeles County has since released $29 million in voter-approved funds for parkland acquisition, funds that were used, in part, to buy Paramount.

The amended bill specifies that the $4 million be used for properties in Broome Ranch south of Newbury Park, Zuma and Trancas canyons and upper Topanga Canyon, as well as Paramount Ranch and along the Backbone Trail that traverses the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Park to Point Mugu.

The restrictions were inserted in the spending bill preemptively in response to concerns raised by Soka University, which is opposing park officials’ efforts to acquire part of its property near the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway for a visitors’ center and park headquarters. Park proponents said they wanted to forestall a restriction they considered harmful to their ability to obtain properties as inexpensively as possible.

Soka has sought language for the last three years banning any federal funds from being used for condemnation proceedings. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that buys and manages land in the mountains in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, had begun the condemnation process to obtain about 245 acres of the school’s land. Soka, meanwhile, wants to expand its campus into a liberal arts college.

Federal park authorities expect to use $1.3 million of the $4 million to buy 200 to 300 acres of Broome Ranch, an undeveloped parcel with spectacular views that is contiguous to several state and federal park properties. The National Park Service, Thousand Oaks, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Conejo Recreation and Park District have jointly agreed to purchase the entire 638-acre ranch for $4.2 million.

The Backbone Trail and Zuma and Trancas canyons are priorities, with new, willing sellers at a time when the price of undeveloped properties has declined, said David E. Gackenbach, superintendent of the recreation area. Acquisition of 30 parcels will complete the 43-mile trail. About 25 parcels are privately held in the canyons--5,000 to 6,000 acres of pristine, mountainous, riparian habitat.

Beilenson and other legislative sources said the relatively low funding level was due to a significant drop in park acquisition money nationwide--from $90.5 million last year to $67.2 million--and President Clinton’s decision not to include any money for new purchases in California in his proposed budget.

The conference committee also approved $310,000 for a study of the Santa Monica Mountains to identify lands that contain American Indian artifacts and other matters of archeological or historical interest.

The Santa Monicas had received $13.2 million last year and more than $11 million each year since 1988, when the figure uncharacteristically dipped to $1 million. This year, the House and Senate conference committee included $5.2 million to $6 million for four other park units.

Beilenson said he had not detected a backlash against the past success of the recreation area. Nor, he said, was there any reason to believe that this downturn would continue.

“It’s only natural that every now and then they will try to finish off some acquisition program elsewhere or devote monies to another unit of the National Park Service that needs money that particular year,” he said.

The spending measure is expected to be ratified by both chambers and sent to President Clinton.