L.A. May Seek Deal to OK Rail Tunnel : Transportation: Officials study asking MTA to acquire 110 acres in exchange for allowing agency to dig under park.

In an unorthodox attempt to settle a contentious dispute between subway tunnelers and mountain advocates, Los Angeles city park officials may soon ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to acquire 110 acres of prime Hollywood Hills open space for parkland in exchange for obtaining their blessing to dig a tunnel under Runyon Canyon Park.

The land acquisition proposal, disclosed in a closed session of the city Recreation and Parks Commission on Wednesday, calls for the MTA to buy three privately owned parcels of land next to Runyon Canyon Park--including one owned by Alex Trebek, host of the television game show “Jeopardy!”--and also plant 250 oak trees on the canyon floor.

The proposal, described in a memo from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to the commission, is intended as a way for the city to receive compensation for granting the MTA an easement to dig twin subway tunnels 800 feet under the park. The hilly park rambles from Franklin Avenue in Hollywood up to Mulholland Drive.

The 2.3-mile tunnels would connect a Red Line subway station in Hollywood with a station in Universal City.

In the memo, Joseph T. Edmiston, conservancy executive director, declared that the MTA tunneling project “presents an enormous gamble to the integrity of the Santa Monica Mountains.” The additional parkland, he said, would mitigate a “decline in habitat quality” that would result if the tunnels drain water from the park and leave it bone-dry.

“It may be a over a decade before deleterious ecological effects become obvious on . . . the mountain range,” Edmiston said.

In response, MTA project manager Charles Stark said in a faxed statement to The Times that he had not yet reviewed the conservancy proposal and could not assess its relevancy as a mitigation measure.

Two months ago, the MTA offered the city $1,000 for the easement, a sum described as “a slap in the face” by Alonzo Carmichael, parks department planning officer.

The MTA has repeatedly rejected the notion that its tunnels will, as Edmiston claims, “dewater” the mountains. In Stark’s statement, the MTA executive noted that a 1983 review of the project by the U. S. Department of the Interior declared that tunneling would have no apparent impact on the park.

Further, he said, a Metropolitan Water District tunnel and a city sewer tunnel that were burrowed under the park decades ago have caused “no damage to surface life.”

The properties that the conservancy seeks to acquire as parkland, valued at $4.5 million to $5.5 million, are largely made up of chaparral-covered hillsides that sprawl north and west of the present boundaries of Runyon Canyon Park.

The largest piece, an 84-acre parcel owned by Trebek since the 1980s, is already laced with trails and fire roads well-trod by mountain bikers and hikers.

The other two pieces of land have been hotly disputed in recent years. One, a 4.8-acre ridge top owned by Beverly Hills jeweler Robert W. Lyons, is surrounded by the park. Lyons was recently denied a permit to build a 10,000-square-foot house on the land. He plans to appeal.

The other portion, 21 acres owned by the Toubes Children’s Irrevocable Inter-Vivos Trust and managed by developer Tom Ego, is the site of a massive, multistory Mediterranean-style house that looms over the northern end of the park. The MTA had planned, until giving up on the idea under heavy neighborhood opposition early this year, to sink a 850-foot tunnel ventilation duct on a corner of the Toubes property.

The city parks commission considered the conservancy proposal Wednesday, but put off a vote until it could be reviewed by department staff.

However, commission President Steven L. Soboroff said he considered it a “brilliant” plan that he expected would become an “integral part” of department strategy.

Carmichael, given the job of evaluating the proposal and negotiating with the MTA, said he believes that it is “a good deal if we can swing it.”

Working as the parks department’s negotiator on past easement requests, Carmichael said he obtained $60,000 from the MTA for the right to tunnel under a corner of Pershing Square Downtown, and $6.6 million for the easement under Barnsdall Park.

“We have the upper hand,” he said. “They either give us the money, or they don’t go through.”

For his part, Stark said in his statement that the MTA has no money budgeted for purchasing land and is “attempting to contain the cost of its construction projects.”

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Parkland Acquisition Proposal Los Angeles is planning to ask the Metropolitan Transit Authority to acquire privately owned open space for the city in exchange for receiving the right to tunnel under Runyon Canyon Park. A.-Tom Ego property, 21 acres. B.-Robert Lyons property, 4 acres. C.-Alex Trebek property, 84 acres.