Stitched in Time

Slowly, so slowly, a patchwork of rugged parcels are being stitched into the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Last week, 38 acres at the northwest corner of Topanga State Park in Tarzana were turned into public park--capping a 10-year saga that illustrates the realities of modern land-use planning and environmental preservation.

Owner Tom Steers sold the land for $970,000 raised after city, county, state and federal parks agencies pooled their money. The price was roughly what Steers wanted for the land a year ago--when he brought bulldozers onto the property and threatened to start construction of four expensive homes. To their credit, parks agencies such as the conservancy called the bluff and refused to buy the land at its $2.5-million asking price.

Steers was understandably frustrated when he called his bulldozers in. He had always intended to develop his land, bought more than 40 years ago. During the real estate boom of the late 1980s, Los Angeles County planners gave the green light to Rancho Estates, even though the property was reachable only along a three-mile stretch of unpaved road. It was the sort of approval that won county planners a reputation for environmental insensitivity. Parks agencies had long wanted the land but kept Steers dangling as funding dried up in Washington and Sacramento.

Enter the bulldozers.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was criticized when it failed to rush to the rescue--a practice it perfected with costly acquisitions from Studio City to Topanga Canyon. But it was the right course. When negotiations take place in the path of earth-moving equipment, the first things to get shoved aside are rational decisions. The conservancy simply does not have enough money to cut a check to every developer in the Santa Monicas. Choices must be made. The conservancy chose to wait. And in the intervening year, it worked with federal, county and city agencies to assemble a deal Steers liked--at less than half the original price.

Slowly, so slowly, the patchwork is coming together. The pace can be maddening to those who love the mountains and want to see them protected. But rushing into a deal usually means rushing into a bad deal.