Land Firms Give Green to Parks Initiative

A $2-billion statewide parks bond measure that has captured a broad base of support from California nature lovers has also attracted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from landowners who stand to gain if the initiative passes June 7.

If a majority of voters give the nod next week, Proposition 180 will free up the richest package of park bonds ever seen in California. The money would fund more than 400 land purchases, improvements and cultural projects statewide.

Proponents, ranging from environmental groups to law enforcement to community leaders, herald the measure--known as CALPAW --as an opportunity that may never present itself again. To wait for the Legislature to come up with such a sum to preserve open space would be to lose much of the land to development, they say.

Opponents attack CALPAW as too costly during an era when fundamental needs such as education, health care and crime-fighting beg for additional funding.

While the two sides squabble over pros and cons of the initiative, the campaign treasury of its sponsor, the Planning and Conservation League, grows exponentially.

More than $2 million has been raised to promote CALPAW, some of it from private, for-profit firms whose property is likely to be purchased if the measure passes. Consider:

* The Irvine Co., Orange County’s vast landholder, donated $60,000 to the Yes on 180 campaign. A spokesman said the company has three parcels that would be purchased under the bond act for a total of $36 million.

* Avatar Properties gave $10,000 to the initiative effort. The firm, based in Coral Gables, Fla., owns land at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains in the western San Fernando Valley. If CALPAW passes, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy plans to spend at least $13 million to acquire land in the area known as “Big Wild.” Not all of that money would go to Avatar.

* Canyon Oaks Estates L.P. gave $25,000 to the initiative effort. CALPAW would free up the final $5.8 million needed to complete the mountain conservancy’s purchase of 662 acres of Canyon Oaks property in Topanga Canyon, a conservancy official said.

But the bulk of the money behind CALPAW appears to be generated by the nonprofit groups that would benefit from its projects:

* The Big Sur Land Trust kicked in $300,000, so far the largest donation to the bond act’s campaign. Trust executive director Brian Steen said CALPAW contains $32.6 million for scenic land in Monterey County. “We felt with that kind of opportunity, we needed to step up and make a good-sized investment to support 180,” Steen said.

* The Los Angeles Philharmonic pumped $60,000 into the campaign in hopes of ultimately winning $15 million worth of improvements to the Hollywood Bowl, said Lynn Sadler, campaign director for the Planning and Conservation League.

Although it is not illegal for contributors to gain from a ballot measure they support, Sadler says her group took great pains not to accept any donations before the initiative’s ballot language was finalized. That way, no one could claim that a particular project was included in exchange for a contribution, she said.

“We were very careful . . . so there would be no appearance of exchanges, no quid pro quo,” Sadler said. “We made it so it’s absolutely clear that everything’s aboveboard.”

But if that’s the case, say two miffed state senators, why did the Planning and Conservation League slip language into the ballot measure exempting CALPAW from a state law requiring full disclosure of quid pro quo arrangements?

Among the general provisions of Proposition 180 is one that says “Section 5358 of the Elections Code does not apply to this division.”

State Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) sponsored that law after growing concerns over the Planning and Conservation League’s last parks measure--Proposition 70, a $776-million bond initiative approved by voters in 1988.

“It’s suspicious,” Kopp said. “They are trying to cover themselves. I oppose this and I strongly recommend its rejection.”

At the same time, the Planning and Conservation League is trying to knock down Kopp’s law through court appeals.

Said state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), “What do they intend to do that they don’t want any scrutiny of? Something tells me they are up to something.”

Sadler says the group isn’t trying to hide anything but merely added the wording to protect CALPAW from a potential legal challenge by its foes.

“There’s always venal people who can sue and create havoc even though there’s nothing there,” Sadler said. “We could end up losing forests or wetlands while it’s hung up in court for a year.”

Both Kopp and Wright oppose CALPAW primarily because of its cost, estimated at $142 million annually for the 25 years it will take to pay off interest and principal. They say they’d rather see voters choose the nearly $4 billion in earthquake, higher education and school bonds that are also on the June ballot.

In that view, they are joined by the organized opposition to the initiative, Taxpayers Against Proposition 180, a coalition including taxpayers groups, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau Federation and California Wildlife Federation. Coalition contributions to defeat Proposition 180 have totaled $85,000 so far.

“Our biggest argument against it is that it was put together without any overall thought to how it might impact the financial health of California,” said Stu Mollrich, coalition spokesman.

But the Planning and Conservation League argues that CALPAW is a prudent investment, particularly with land prices at their lowest in decades.

The league has amassed a broad base of supporters, including Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams--who praises CALPAW’s proposed programs for at-risk urban youths--the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the League of Women Voters.

Hundreds of nature clubs, land trusts and preservation groups statewide have offered backing to CALPAW, including the heavyweights--the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, the Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy.

At eight phone banks throughout the state, volunteers make calls from two dozen telephones, trying to spread their now-or-never message to convince voters that they have a historic opportunity to expand parklands.

About two-thirds of the parks bond money is earmarked for buying land to protect it from development. Backers are quick to point out they will only approach willing sellers, and do not plan to kick anybody off their property.

In Orange County, three parcels owned by the Irvine Co.--including a 77-acre blufftop property in Newport Beach and more than 2,000 acres of a pristine greenbelt in Laguna Canyon--are slated to be purchased with $36 million provided by CALPAW.

Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas said the Planning and Conservation League worked directly with local environmental groups and governments to draw up a list of Orange County projects. The league, he said, did not approach the Irvine Co. about being included.

But when the Nature Conservancy asked for a donation to help the CALPAW campaign, the Irvine Co. came up with $60,000. “We were solicited by them,” Thomas said. “They made a commitment to PCL to raise X amount of money.

“The environmental groups with which we work view this bond issue as probably the most significant environmental effort of the past decade,” Thomas said. “Given the high priority these organizations placed on this bond measure, we’ve been responsive when they’ve asked us for support.”

In Los Angeles County, CALPAW--shorthand for the California Parks and Wildlife Initiative--would provide more than $360 million for various parks, improvements to cultural facilities, youth programs and land acquisitions.

Among other things, it would spiff up the Santa Monica Pier’s promenade, the Venice Beach waterfront, the Hollywood Bowl, the Museum of Chinese History, the California Museum of Science and Industry, the Afro-American Museum and the property around the Los Angeles River.

Much of Los Angeles County’s piece of the pie would go to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy or its sister agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, for land purchases and programs in a vast area ranging from Whittier to Pasadena to Santa Clarita to the Malibu coast.

Conservancy officials said in interviews that, among the lands included on the CALPAW wish list are portions of Canyon Oaks in Topanga Canyon and Avatar properties south of Tarzana and Woodland Hills. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

According to a Senate analysis of CALPAW, the initiative also contains language to repeal a state law sunset provision that strips the conservancy of any state general fund money after July 1, 1995.

To Wright, a frequent critic of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, this is another sign that CALPAW’s reach stretches too far. “What they are trying to do is remove what little oversight we have of that agency, and I think that’s wrong.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this story.

A Hand From CALPAW

Proposition 180, the $2-billion statewide parks initiative known as CALPAW, would provide tens of millions of dollars that Los Angeles County could tap into for projects to be decided later. In addition, it would give the following amounts for improvements or land acquisitions in the following areas of the county: Admiral Kidd Park (Long Beach): $1.6 million Antelope Valley Poppy Complex: $1 million Ballona Lagoon: $1 million Ballona Wetlands: $8 million Big Tujunga Wash Alluvial Sage: $1 million Big Wild Study Area: $13 million Bluff Park (Long Beach): $1 million Bonelli Regional Park (San Gabriel Valley): $1.5 million California Museum of Science and Industry (with $500,000 going to the Afro-American Museum): $5 million Castaic Lake State Recreation Area: $1 million Cold Creek Watershed Preserve (Malibu-Calabasas): $5 million Desert Habitat (near Lancaster): $4 million Deukmejian Wilderness Park (Glendale): $1 million Devil’s Gate/Arroyo Seco (Pasadena): $3 million Eaton Canyon Park (Pasadena): $700,000 El Segundo Dunes: $1 million Elysian Park: $1.5 million Gardena Wetlands: $1 million Glendora/San Gabriel Rim Open Space Corridor: $2 million Griffith Park: $4 million Hansen Dam: $1 million Holifield Park Expansion (Montebello): $1 million Hollywood Bowl: $15 million John Anson Ford Park (Bell Gardens): $1 million Kenneth Hahn Park (South-Central L.A.): $4 million Long Beach Civic Gardens: $2 million Long Beach Regional Parks: $500,000 L.A. County At-Risk Youth Facilities: $10 million L.A. County Beaches: $4 million L.A. County Coastal Zone Habitat (Topanga Canyon): $30 million L.A. County Greenways: $3 million Los Angeles Housing Authority: $3 million L.A. County Mountain Camps: $3 million L.A. County Mountains Education Program: $2 million L.A. County Rivers and Streams: $3 million L.A. County Significant Ecological Areas: $12 million L.A. County Trout Program: $3 million Los Angeles “Crime Ridden” Parks: $10 million Los Angeles River: $5 million Madrona Marsh (Torrance): $1.5 million Malibu Coastal Riparian Habitat: $2 million Malibu Creek Watershed: $4 million Martin Luther King Jr. Park (Long Beach): $1.4 million Museum of Chinese American History (Chinatown): $500,000 Palmdale/Lancaster Sports Complex: $4.6 million Palos Verdes Peninsula: $6 million Placerita Canyon Park: $2 million Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach): $200,000 Rancho Los Cerritos (Long Beach): $300,000 Rim of the Valley Trail Corridor: $5 million Santa Clara River Park, Santa Clarita: $3 million Santa Clarita Woodlands: $7 million Santa Fe Dam: $3 million Santa Monica Beaches: $2 million Santa Monica Mountains: $10 million Santa Monica Mountains “Threatened Lands”: $5 million Santa Susana Mountains: $15 million Schabarum Regional Park: $1 million Sepulveda Basin: $4.5 million Vasquez Rocks Recreational Park: $200,000 Venice Beach: $3 million Whittier Hills Wilderness Park: $7 million Whittier Narrows: $1 million Wildlife Corridors South of Route 101: $5 million Source: The Planning and Conservation League