Beyond the Santa Monicas

A sign posted along Placerita Canyon Road announces plans to build hundreds of homes on the mountainside just east of here.

But someone has spray-painted the words “No Way” over the sign, indicating the frustration some feel about the pace of new development. The population in the area has increased by about 21% in the last 10 years.

“There is an increasing sentiment among the community that they don’t want to see the foothills and mountains developed,” said Joe Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. “But the folks who have the most at stake in terms of protecting open space don’t really have political control.”

Edmiston, however, hopes to change that. Late last month, with the blessing of the state Legislature, the conservancy’s board voted to include a 57,000-acre area known as the Santa Clara River Watershed in its jurisdiction.

That means the conservancy will now have the ability to buy up property targeted for development and preserve it as open space. The change also gives the conservancy, best-known for acquiring large tracts of wild lands in the Santa Monicas and other surrounding mountain areas, more clout in local land-use decisions.

Slicing through the Angeles National Forest, the Santa Clara River drainage provides an important wildlife link between the north and south sections, environmentalists said. In addition, as Southern California’s only undammed, free-flowing river, the Santa Clara provides a home for several endangered species.

But some question expansion of the conservancy’s powers, saying that the agency has not yet finished its work preserving the Santa Monica Mountains, even though several properties are available for purchase.

Patricia Bell Hearst, chairwoman of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., said she wants to see the conservancy purchase all the available land in the Santa Monica Mountains before moving on to other areas.

“The [conservancy] has had 20 years to protect an integral zone of the Santa Monicas from development. This has not been done,” Hearst said. “We have properties that have had willing sellers for 10 to 15 years.”

Hearst said she is most concerned about the preservation of properties around the dirt portion of Mulholland Highway. If the road is ever paved, she said, she expects it will allow new development in the mountains.

Paul Edelman, chief of planning and natural resources for the conservancy, said the agency has expanded its boundaries over the years because opportunities to purchase land cheaply or accept land donations have come up.

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By increasing its jurisdiction, the agency maximizes the area where it can acquire property.

Hearst also questioned whether habitat protection is the purpose.

“I find it difficult to accept a linkage of habitat when we have freeways and development in between,” Hearst said, noting that the Antelope Valley Freeway cuts through the two parts of the national forest. “I don’t know how many of God’s creatures can safely cross a multilane freeway.”

Freeway underpasses and drainage tunnels already provide a passageway for large animals, Edelman said. By preserving open space, the conservancy hopes to increase the number of ways animals can safely migrate across the watershed.

The conservancy has targeted the area for protection of wildlife habitat, trail links, scenic views and protection of endangered species.

“The habitat depends on that river for their very existence,” said Jonathan Baskin, a professor of biological sciences at Cal Poly Pomona. “We need to conserve these areas before they are gone.”

One development the agency is monitoring is PacSun of Pasadena’s plans to build 636 homes just south of the Antelope Valley Freeway near the Fair Oaks Ranch housing development. The potential developers of the area, known as Golden Valley Ranch, are seeking approval from the Santa Clarita City Council. The project is in an unincorporated area of the county, but the city of Santa Clarita would probably annex the land.

Edelman said the agency would like to buy the property.

“If the price was right, it’s something we’d have to look at,” Edelman said. If the price is too high, he added, the agency would try to persuade the developer to build a smaller project--with no more than 25 homes--and encourage the sale of extra land to public agencies.

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John Jameson, executive vice president at PacSun, said he doubts the agency’s presence will have any effect on the size of his project because it has no zoning powers.

A second conservancy target, Edelman said, is a gravel mine in Soledad Canyon proposed by Southdown Inc.

Santa Clarita officials are fighting that project. It has already been studied for 10 years, said Brian Mastin, environmental affairs manager for Southdown. It is poised for approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns the mineral rights to the site. He said he doubts the conservancy will have much effect.

Federal officials “have been reviewing this exhaustively. The environmental review process has been about how we will mine the land, not about whether or not we will mine the land,” Mastin said.

Edmiston sees the issues differently.

“The future of the Santa Clara River Watershed is at stake,” Edmiston said. “This is one of the fastest growing regions in California.”