Natural Growth

For years, Kimberly Mullin gazed upon the stretch of hilly, boulder-strewn land longingly, but didn’t dare wander in.

“I’ve seen the area my whole life, since I was a little kid,” the West Hills woman, now 43, said of the rocky terrain nestled between Stoney Point Park and the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Chatsworth.

Not only had she heard that it was private property, she had seen the barbed-wire fence keeping trespassers out.

“Something that beautiful shouldn’t be kept from the public,” she said while out walking her dog, Moose, one recent afternoon.

Although it is still in private hands, the 54-acre area just north of Stoney Point will be open to the public in a matter of months when it becomes city property, officials said.

In a move applauded by nature lovers and conservationists, the Los Angeles City Council last week unanimously approved a deal that would make the parcel part of Stoney Point Park. The landowner, Valley Christian Presbyterian Church in Arleta, agreed to give it to the city in exchange for about 11 acres of city-owned land in Northridge and $2.8 million in Proposition A bond money.

“It was a prime piece of property that had not been developed,” said James Ward, park superintendent for the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, surveying the placid scene of horse trails, dense shrubbery and occasional boulders that starts at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and ends with a cluster of houses at its eastern edge. “This now allows it to remain forever in its natural state.”

The land swap was the culmination of years of planning and negotiations between the church and city, those close to the transaction said.

“The entire area is one of the most unusual rock formations you’ll see anywhere,” said City Councilman Hal Bernson, who had worked toward acquiring the land for nearly six years. “It was something that needed to be preserved.”

Not only will the deal allow the 22-acre park--for long a favorite destination among rock climbers and rappellers--to more than triple in size, it will also help preserve a piece of wilderness that nature lovers and city officials say is reminiscent of California’s early history.

“This is a great complement to the existing Stoney Point area,” said Brad Childs, executive director of the Wilderness Institute, who has taught rock climbing there since 1984. The gentle hills and valleys and the “low grubby plants” evoke “any old western, like ‘Gunsmoke,’ ” he said. “It adds more diversity not only in terms of landscape but also plants and wildlife.”

Fragrant with the smells of sumac and sage shrubs, the land is home to deer, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels and raccoons. Birds such as scrub jays, finches, red-tailed hawks and blackbirds flitter about.

In spring, park officials said, the area bursts with yellow, white and lavender wildflowers.

The land also provides a “habitat connection” between the original Stoney Point and Santa Susana Mountains State Park, said Paul Edelman, a division chief of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which helped the city put the deal together. “It allows animals to find new territory, escape fires, find new food sources and mates.”

With the new addition, city officials say they are expecting more hikers and families to join the climber crowd that already frequents the area.

The smaller boulders are easier for children to scale, and the squat ones with plateau tops would be ideal for picnics, said Tom Cotter, a senior park ranger for the city. “Anybody can come out here and pick a spot.”

The city does not yet have specific plans on what it would do with the area. But it would most likely clear some brush and undergrowth near residential areas to reduce the risk of fire before the start of summer, Ward said.

In the future, there should also be an off-road parking lot, department officials said. Currently, the only place to park is a precarious stretch along Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

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The expanded park area will be the perfect “protection against development,” said Kevin Jeffreys, 22, from Camarillo, who climbs there once a week. “In the L. A. area, stuff goes up constantly. It just never stops developing. [The land] gives a lot more room and makes you feel secluded.”

Mullin, in the meantime, is already making plans to go there with Moose. “I think it’s wonderful,” she said of the imminent public access to the still-barb-wired area. “It’s well overdue.”