Conservancy Flouts the Law With Park Project

* As one of the pro bono lawyers for Friends of Caballero Canyon, I write in response to your July 19 news article (“Conservancy Sued Over Park Plan”), which is somewhat misleading and certainly incomplete.

The members of Friends are certainly not against the enjoyment of these mountains by everyone. In fact, members of Friends have for years led walks and hikes in Caballero Canyon.

The conservancy determined twice before, in 1992 and 1993, that the best use of Reseda Ridge would be to appropriately restore it to be a magnificent entrance to Topanga State Park. The Friends supported this determination.

Instead, in 1994 a majority of the conservancy board voted (the superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area dissenting) to put a “flatland grasslands” type of park on this site, increasing the cost by more than $1 million. The conservancy did not prepare an environmental impact report, or hold the public hearings that such a report would require. The California State Department of Parks and Recreation, the professional in this field, specifically requested the conservancy to cease “ . . . all further work on the site until the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the likely future operator of the property, and its constituents, the public, have the opportunity thoroughly to review completed plans and environmental review documentation that accurately reflects the project. . . . “ The conservancy refused.

The Friends accordingly filed this lawsuit. On July 14, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the Friends’ lawsuit was properly filed and that the conservancy needed to respond. Instead of obeying the law, as a government agency certainly should, the conservancy’s “response” has been to hurry up its destruction of the natural site so that there will be nothing left to save.

The conservancy should have to learn that it has to obey laws like the rest of us.

H. MELVIN SMITH JR.

Tarzana