Historical Listing Sought on Mulholland : Conservation: Parks officials will seek national designation for a dirt stretch of roadway in Santa Monica Mountains.

State park officials announced Saturday that they will ask the National Park Service to designate the dirt portion of Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains as a national historic site.

The announcement by officials of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was made during a fact-finding trip to review the progress of park projects and development threats along the nine-mile dirt stretch of Mulholland between Encino Hills Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

In a letter to the National Park Service, Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, said the dirt roadway deserves inclusion on the list of historic places because it “has remained virtually unchanged since its opening day on December 27, 1924,” and is “one of the best examples of what Los Angeles looked and felt like in the 1910s and 1920s.”

The letter, dated Saturday, was made available during the tour.

More than two dozen city officials, environmental activists and park enthusiasts took part in the trip, trading their suits, ties and pumps for shorts, hiking boots and sunscreen and braving sweltering temperatures.

During the 3 1/2-hour trek, the group, which included Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, visited five sites along the dirt roadway, including a parcel where a developer wants to build 30 homes and two other sites where the conservancy wants to create parks. Environmentalists want to curb development along the unpaved road and believe national historic status will help in that goal.

“There are certain parts of this city that should remain untouched,” said Daryce Richman-Cooper, a member of the L.A. Urban Wilderness Coalition and an avid supporter of preserving the dirt stretch of Mulholland, a popular spot for hikers and mountain bikers.

“It’s nice to know you can go someplace where it’s like a remote area but still accessible,” she said.

At a rickety steel post of the Nike missile site, Edmiston explained how the abandoned, World War II-era structure will be restored as an observation deck in a four-acre park, providing a panoramic view that on clear days takes in Mount Baldy, Downtown Los Angeles and the Tehachapis in Kern County. Blueprints for the park include granite walkways, picnic areas and viewing posts surrounded by juniper trees.

“This is a perfect example of how we can use what’s here and plant and build around it to enhance the surroundings and keep the history of the area,” Edmiston said.

“Putting dirt Mulholland on the National Registry [of Historic Places] will raise the public awareness of the fact that it’s being threatened with all this development,” said John Diaz, chairman of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Design Review Board. Diaz said the design review board, which operates under the Los Angeles City Planning Department, will consider a resolution supporting the historic landmark status at its meeting Thursday.

“There’s no constituency here because no one lives here, so this is necessary for us to do so that we can make sure it stays the way it is,” Diaz said.

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Mulholland Drive fact-finding tour

Top city officials, environmentalists and park boosters toured dirt Mulholland to assess threats presented by development along its boundaries. (see newspaper for map)