CONSERVANCY WANTS TO JOIN EFFORT TO BLOCK TUNNELING UNDER PARK : CONSERVANCY OPPOSES PROJECT.

Byline: Marni McEntee Daily News Staff Writer

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is seeking state approval to join a coalition of homeowners and environmentalists in a lawsuit to block subway tunneling under Runyon Canyon Park, agency officials said Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, also claims that the Metro Red Line subway would damage the city park and that the project has not been studied sufficiently to the environmental effects of the project between Universal City and Hollywood.

The conservancy provided the city with a $4.1 million grant in 1984 to purchase the 133-acre Runyon Canyon property, which now is operated by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

The conservancy has protested the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tunneling plan for three years, said John Diaz, the conservancy's chief of land acquisition.

``We have the public's interest in protecting any parklands in the Santa Monica Mountains,'' Diaz said.

The agency agrees with the lawsuit's charge that the removal of huge amounts of water ultimately will harm plants and animals in Runyon and two neighboring canyons, he said.

``Unfortunately we feel that the MTA has not at all even asked what the impacts of the dewatering will have on the native vegetation and on the wildlife, and the additional impacts of dynamiting, hauling and tunneling to the park user,'' Diaz said.

The MTA declined comment Thursday on the pending litigation.

The conservancy board voted April 15 to join in the lawsuit, pending approval from the Attorney General's Office, which must give the state agency approval to be represented by a private attorney, conservancy staff counsel Laurie Collins said.

The lawsuit was filed by Rescue Our Canyons, a group of homeowners from Hollywood Hills and Studio City and Friends of Runyon Canyon. The groups are being represented by Jan Chatten-Brown, who is providing her services pro bono - which means it won't cost the conservancy legal fees to join the suit, Collins said.

The lawsuit argues that federal transportation rules require that routes through parks be used only as a last resort.

It also claims that many details of the region's water flow, seismic zones and other questions have come to light since the original environmental impact report was completed on the project in 1989.