Open-Space Battle Lost, War Goes On : Setback at polls calls for even more determination and creativity among conservationists

The recession made it more difficult for developers to get money to build houses and made them more willing to sell their land to groups wanting to preserve it as open space. However, this same economic slowdown made voters unwilling to incur more debt to buy the fields, lakes and canyons. That is wholly understandable.

Even so, Tuesday’s rejection of Proposition 180, the California Parks and Wildlife Initiative, was an especially hard blow to Laguna Beach and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. But neither should throw in the towel on worthwhile projects because of the setback at the polls. It is time again to approach private donors and to look even harder for federal and state funds.

The initiative’s defeat cost the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy more than $85 million sought for the acquisition of open land in the Santa Monica Mountains. Now its executive director says it and a sister agency will have to lay off workers and put property purchases on hold. The conservancy also will have to come up with nearly $6 million to complete its purchase of Canyon Oaks Estates in Topanga Canyon.

And Laguna Beach was counting on Proposition 180 to provide $25 million, the bulk of a $33-million final payment due the Irvine Co. next year for a marvelous 2,150-acre property known as Laguna Laurel. About 1,500 local volunteers, an impressive number, gathered signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and worked to solicit voter support.

Laguna Laurel would be part of a wilderness park stretching several miles inland from the coast. Laguna Beach already has paid most of the $78-million purchase price but needed help from the initiative to buy the final 189 acres, which still conceivably could wind up as the site of 1,500 houses.

Although the specific plots of land for these two major projects are of course most accessible to residents of Laguna Beach and Topanga, they and similar parcels are assets to the entire region. Hikers from San Bernardino trek in the Santa Monica Mountains; San Diego residents and tourists enjoy the Laguna Beach coast and canyons.

It is time for initiative backers to huddle with property owners to see what can be worked out. An Irvine Co. executive accurately labeled Laguna Laurel proponents “resourceful and determined people.” So are Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy supporters.

Voters may have felt tapped out in the face of a $2-billion initiative, but this is no time for supporters of parks and wilderness to just fold their tents.