Local Elections : Parkland Agency Left High and Dry : Prop. 180: Defeat of measure means Santa Monica Conservancy must lay off staff and put land acquisitions on hold.

A day after voters rejected a $2-billion bond measure to buy parkland, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy found itself Wednesday in a familiar situation: underfunded and under fire.

Proposition 180 would have directed more than $85 million to the state agency to acquire open land in the Santa Monica Mountains from Griffith Park to Point Mugu.

Instead, the conservancy and a sister agency--the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority--will be forced to lay off more than one-third of their employees and put off critical property acquisitions as their limited funding dwindles further, said Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director.

Even so, Edmiston refused to concede total defeat. He said the conservancy is still owed more than $13 million by the National Park Service for other acquisitions in the mountains and still has a small amount of cash in accounts earmarked for special projects.

“We’re not going to sit back and say, ‘The people have spoken’ and let the environment of Santa Monica Mountains go down the tubes,” he said.

Perhaps most significantly, Proposition 180’s failure calls into question the conservancy’s effort to pull off what was heralded a few months ago as one of its greatest accomplishments: the last-minute, $19.9-million purchase of Canyon Oaks Estates, a huge swath of Topanga Canyon land proposed for development.

Some critics outside the agency doubt the conservancy will be able to come up with the $5.8 million it owes on part of the property before next year, when the developer is entitled to propose a new project.

And even some of the conservancy’s staunchest allies grumble that the high-profile purchase of Canyon Oaks was a high-priced mistake that leaves the agency without money to buy other important parcels at a time when the cost of vacant land is at its lowest in years.

The price of Canyon Oaks was the highest the conservancy has paid for a single property since its creation in 1979.

Conservancy officials conceded when they bought Canyon Oaks in April that they did not have enough money to close the deal. They even put other acquisitions on hold to come up with the initial payment of $14 million.

They counted on Proposition 180 to not only round out the remainder of the Canyon Oaks money, but also to put other purchases back on track.

Edmiston said it was realistic to count on Proposition 180 funds because voters have been willing to fund parkland measures.

Political consultant Mark Litchman, who has worked for the conservancy, said most parks agencies have no choice but to rely on voters to stay alive.