State to Buy Malibu Open Space

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy on Monday agreed to acquire 1,408 acres of prime Malibu real estate in a complex deal that will tie Topanga Canyon State Park into a growing swath of protected mountain wilderness and coastal open space.

The conservancy will pay $7 million for a portion of the property that runs above two miles of coastline from Tuna Canyon to Las Flores Canyon.

The rest of the acreage will be donated by landowner Alfred E. Mann in exchange for tax credits potentially worth tens of millions of dollars under a new state program.

Mann, a biomedical entrepreneur, said the tax credits make the deal “acceptable,” given the enormous tax bill he faces for the recent $3.8-billion sale of MiniMed Inc., an insulin pump maker, and one of his affiliated companies.

“I got a big chunk of change and truly need tax credits,” Mann said. He said he probably won’t break even on the deal, having sunk at least $30 million into property that he estimates won’t net more than $25 million.

The property has long been coveted by park officials, who see it as a key link in a chain of purchases to protect the undeveloped coastal slope of the Santa Monica Mountains above Pacific Coast Highway.

The Mountains Restoration Trust, a nonprofit conservation group, expects to take possession of an adjacent 418 acres by the end of the year, said Stephen Harris, the trust’s president. “It’s a perfect link,” he said, between the Mann property and what the state recently purchased in lower Topanga Canyon.

These three undeveloped parcels, covered with coastal scrub and chaparral, offer a broad corridor for wildlife, as well as for hikers, horseback riders and cyclists.

Park officials hope to connect the parcels with a trail that would be fanned by cool ocean breezes in the summer and offer unrivaled views of the Pacific along the route.

Some promontories on Mann’s property provide 360-degree views that extend to Santa Catalina Island to the south, Oat Mountain to the north and Mt. Wilson to the northeast.

Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s director, said his state agency plans to keep the land as open space with the exception of a primitive camp to be built as a destination for busloads of students from low-income neighborhoods to get their first taste of wilderness.

“It’s truly spectacular,” Edmiston said while touring the property. “This is the ridgeline you see from the Santa Monica Pier and something we need to preserve” from development.

Mann said he once hoped to build a resort hotel and golf course on the relatively flat area at the top of his land above Big Rock, Tuna and Las Flores canyons. He also considered developing 100 sites for large homes, building condominiums next to the hotel and a sewage treatment plant for the homes around Big Rock, a neighborhood where septic tanks may be contributing to unstable ground.

But Mann said he grew weary of tangling with opponents of the development and with trying to overcome regulatory hurdles. “I’ve had this property for a decade now,” he said. “I don’t have time to play with it.”

If state officials approve the deal, it will be the largest, so far, to take advantage of the new Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Act. Enacted last year, the act is designed to help wealthy landowners turn over private property to public parks and wildlife agencies.

So far, the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board has approved about $8 million in tax credits to five landowners who collectively have donated more than 500 acres and water rights.

The law authorizes the state to issue $100 million in tax credits over five years, a method of acquisition that virtually doubles the state’s purchasing power.