AGENCIES BUYING 696 ACRES IN CALABASAS FOR OPEN SPACE {SOURCE{ BY LEE CONDON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER.Once a potential site for a 250-home luxury subdivision, a 696-acre property in Calabasas is being purchased by a group of public agencies to preserve as open space. Members of the environmental group Save Open Space successfully sued to stop the development, claiming the project did not comply with the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County General Plan. ``We're thrilled with this acquisition,'' said Mary Weisbrock, director of Save Open Space. ``We thought we'd never be able to stop that housing development.'' The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open , the city of Calabasas and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District have joined together to buy the property from a group of investors who owned the site. The site is located just northeast of the intersection of Mulholland Highway  This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers.Please [improve the article] or discuss this issue on the talk page. and Las Virgenes Road. Zev Yaroslavsky Zev Yaroslavsky (born December 21, 1948) is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D. Edelman. , chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five member governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district, the current members as of April 2006 are:
``Thanks to a unique partnership between several public agencies sharing a common goal, we have seized the opportunity of a lifetime to preserve and protect nearly 700 prime acres in the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. ,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``It's an incredibly beautiful and environmentally significant area and a great example of how we can leverage our tax dollars to scoop up Verb 1. scoop up - take out or up with or as if with a scoop; "scoop the sugar out of the container" lift out, scoop, scoop out, take up remove, take away, withdraw, take - remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something a great real estate bargain for the public.'' The three agencies will pay about $3 million for the site. The conservancy will contribute $620,000 from Proposition A, the Safe Neighborhood Parks Act of 1996, the city of Calabasas will contribute $600,000 and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District will provide $1.8 million. The deal still needs to the approval of the Board of Supervisors because it includes Proposition A funds. The board will vote on the issue Aug. 19. The site is listed in the Santa Monica Mountains Land Protection Plan as a proposed National Park Service acquisition and is home to more than 100 different species of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. Once owned by actor Bob Hope, the site had been purchased by Micor II, a development partnership which included some 40 investors who put $5 million into the project in the late 1980s. CAPTION(S): map MAP: Land purchase |
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