Judge Freezes Work on Mountain Park : Recreation: Environmental group fighting Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy plans for Big Sky Gateway.

A neighborhood environmental group won a preliminary injunction Friday to stop construction of a park in the Santa Monica Mountains, the latest twist in a bitter battle over control of recreation in the hills.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne ordered the bulldozers halted at the southern end of Reseda Boulevard at the request of the Friends of Caballero Canyon, a group of 400 mountain and neighborhood advocates that believes a state parkland management agency exceeded its authority by building the park without adequate public review.

The practical effect of the injunction, however, will be slight because the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s work crews have worked long hours and weekends over the past two weeks--nearly finishing the park that is scheduled to open next month under the name Big Sky Gateway.

On Friday afternoon, in fact, conservancy landscapers were watering an expansive lawn that juts out high above a splendid view of the San Fernando Valley, and tamping down basins for the last of the 300 oak and walnut trees.

But the argument over the vista exemplifies the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Viewing the same terrain, Jill Swift, a longtime mountain advocate who leads the friends group, said she considers the lush lawn and serried row of tall trees a crime against nature. She accuses the conservancy of hubris in spending up to $1 million in trying to make the dusty slopes an oasis of landscaped greenery, nourished by thousands of gallons of irrigation water.

“I hope it all dies,” she said. “This is a mess. Nature is random. This looks like a nursery.”

Lawyers for the conservancy expressed exasperation at having to fight fellow environmentalists to create a shady place for city dwellers to rest their heads and watch the smog lift in the afternoon.

“I think it’s a waste of taxpayer money, considering all the problems we have with pollution and dangerous activities by developers,” said Daniel Olivas, the deputy attorney general who appeared in court Friday. “I mean, this is a park!”

The Friends of Caballero Canyon hailed the judge’s action as an important victory, however. The group sued the conservancy in April, complaining that the agency was ducking provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act that require an environmental impact report on projects that will substantially affect open space.

“We want them to comply with the laws of the state of California,” said H. Melvin Swift Jr., lawyer for the group. “If a developer did what they’re doing, the conservancy would be all over them.”

The conservancy, for its part, interprets the law to mean that only projects that impact the environment in a harmful manner are subject to the complicated EIR process. The agency believes it is instead improving the land, which years ago was left denuded by a developer.

“All we want to do is repair and re-vegetate this place,” said Paul Edelman, the conservancy’s staff ecologist, “and create a destination park for the thousands of people who aren’t ready to hike back into the mountains. “

Indeed, the park will be only the second public park in the hills south of Ventura Boulevard from Woodland Hills to Studio City.

“I think it’s going to be one of the most popular parks in Southern California,” said Jerome C. Daniel, a member of the conservancy board who stopped by the park on Friday to check its progress. “The Valley has really been shut out until now from access to Topanga State Park. This will be a transition zone.”

The state Department of Parks and Recreation sought on Friday to be disassociated from the case, declaring in a statement that contrary to papers filed by the Friends of Caballero Canyon it had no “real interest” in the matter.

The confusion stemmed from a letter sent in October by State Parks District Supt. Daniel Preece to the conservancy. “It is not the policy of State Parks to maintain large artificially landscaped and irrigated areas in natural parks,” said the letter, which was disavowed by Carl S. Chavez, the new acting parks district chief, as Preece’s personal opinion.

Olivas, the attorney for the state, expressed relief that the judge did not demand that the conservancy remove the lawn and trees. Until the conclusion of the trial, scheduled to start Dec. 14, work will be suspended on a ranger station, an outdoor classroom built from boulders and a security gate.

Markman is a Times staff writer and Hwangbo is a correspondent.