Conservancy Extends Reach Far Beyond Santa Monicas : Parkland: Agency defends efforts to buy acreage in Santa Barbara County and near La Habra Heights. Critics say it should spend money locally.

With far-flung land deals pending in Santa Barbara County and the southern end of Los Angeles County, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is on the verge of outgrowing its name once and for all.

The Malibu-based state agency has long operated outside its namesake mountains, expanding by legislative fiat and legal consent into the Antelope Valley and the rim of the Valley corridor that encircles the San Fernando Valley.

But in an acceleration of the trend, the conservancy is poised to divert $3.7 million in voter-approved park funds--that were to be spent locally--to purchase property outside its normal base of operations.

Two pending land deals were approved this year by the Legislature. Unless Gov. Pete Wilson issues a line-item veto this summer, the conservancy will have the authority to negotiate the purchase of:

* A 780-acre swath of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley that would become part of a 6,000-acre outdoor laboratory affiliated with the UC Santa Barbara.

* A 546-acre parcel near the city of La Habra Heights that is considered a key wildlife corridor between the San Gabriel Mountains and Cleveland National Forest.

Conservancy critics acknowledge that the deals would preserve valuable wildlife habitat but contend that the conservancy is legally obligated to spend the money locally. Opposition is expected to intensify after Tuesday’s defeat of a $2-billion park bond measure, a loss that limits the conservancy’s ability to buy land within its usual sphere of operations.

“This is an outrage,” said Mary Wiesbrock, president of Save Open Space-Santa Monica Mountains, a local environmental group. “It’s just the wrong use of this money.”

But conservancy officials defend their actions, saying that they did not seek to expand their domain but are doing so at the behest of powerful state politicians who control the agency’s purse strings. They hasten to add that they also support the acquisitions. “If you only focus on the Santa Monica Mountains and don’t worry about other areas, you end up with a biological island,” said Liz Cheadle, the conservancy’s attorney.

Funding would come from the conservancy’s share of Proposition 117, a statewide wildlife protection initiative approved by voters in 1990. The law guaranteed the conservancy $50 million over a five-year period, to be spent “within the Santa Monica Mountains zone, the rim of the Valley corridor and the Santa Clarita woodlands.”

But conservancy officials said they may legally spend the money outside the designated area with the approval of the Legislature--an opinion disputed by critics. The two proposed acquisitions would divert about 37% of the conservancy’s annual $10 million allocated through Proposition 117 from the agency’s normal operating sphere.

The money would be funneled through the conservancy’s two sister agencies in Whittier and Ventura County, which may purchase parkland outside their prescribed base of operations, according to an attorney general’s opinion obtained by the conservancy two years ago.

Still, some state parks officials are also critical of the plan.

“We’re trying to save an ecosystem in the Santa Monicas, and by no means is the work complete,” said Suzanne Goode, associate resource ecologist with state Department of Parks and Recreation. “If the money gets spread too thin, we won’t be able to do that.”

The proposed deals also anger property owners who were counting on the conservancy to buy their land with money from the bond measure that failed Tuesday.

“They keep promising us they’ll buy our land, and they keep breaking their promises,” one said.

Conservancy officials said they had little choice but to accede to the desires of Assembly members who approached them for technical and financial assistance in purchasing the Santa Ynez Valley and La Habra Heights parcels. The Legislature created the conservancy and can abolish it.

“We have a lot of battles to fight in the Legislature, and you have to pick and choose which ones to fight,” Cheadle said.

Proponents said the proposed acquisitions would benefit all Southern Californians.

The Santa Barbara property would be deeded to the University of California’s Natural Reserve System, producing ecological research that could aid the entire region, said Bruce Mahall, a UC Santa Barbara professor involved in the preservation effort. The land is part of Sedgwick Ranch, a former cattle ranch with breathtaking views, most of which is already owned by the university.

The parcel is for sale for $2.9 million, and environmentalists fear that a developer will buy it and build ranchettes unless the conservancy helps acquire it.

“It’s not a matter of preserving mountains here or mountains there,” said Claire Schlotterbeck of Hills for Everyone, an environmental group composed of residents of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties. “We’re all in this together.”