PARKLAND INITIATIVE GETS FRESH PUSH ENVIRONMENTALISTS WORKING WITH MAYOR TO REVIVE ASSESSMENT PLAN.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Environmentalists and other community leaders are working with Mayor Laurene Weste to reconfigure last year's failed open space and parks initiative that would have assessed property owners about $25 a year per parcel to buy up parkland and build more parks.

Weste is compiling a list of people interested in serving on a committee to draft a new measure, a suggestion from local activists.

``We definitely need to revisit this; it's just how we're going to do this to make sure everyone's at the table,'' said Sandra Cattell, open space chair for the Santa Clarita Sierra Club. ``Even people that voted against it, I believe a majority of them want open space.''

Weste said her phone lines have buzzed with calls for another open-space measure.

``By far and away one of the most essential things for our physical health, how we feel about our community when we look out is interconnectedness to nature,'' said Weste. ``There's no mechanism to preserve open space without acquiring and preserving it.'' Weste said she would be happy to organize the committee.

The Open Space and Parkland Preservation District -- voted down by property owners 60 percent to 40 percent Nov. 22 -- would have brought the city $1.4 million a year to buy natural lands and maintain them, and to develop parks and sports fields.

The fee could have been adjusted to keep pace with inflation without a further vote.

City spokeswoman Gail Ortiz suggested timing and the cost-of-living provision may have doomed it.

``It hit the streets at the same time folks were receiving property tax bills -- I think that was a big reason,'' she said. ``(And) some folks said the (consumer price index) gave them pause.

An activist involved in the battle against the proposed Cemex mine said the committee should be formed before it's too late.

``Land is a finite commodity ... as available open space gets bought up for various uses it takes that much more of it off the market,'' said Andrew Fried, a resident of Agua Dulce. ``Soon we're not going to have any of it left.''

Fried envisions a broad-based coalition: people of all ages, businesses, institutional land owners and environmentalists.

Fried, formerly Agua Dulce's Town Council president, co-chairs the Cemex Executive Advisory Committee, which briefs city officials on developments concerning the planned Cemex mine the city has spent millions battling.

Nearly 50,000 mail-in ballots were sent out for last November's measure, but two-thirds of the property owners did not return them, city officials said.

Polling conducted in 2004 and 2005 showed voters were supportive of the measure, and there seemed to be no organized opposition, with support voiced by environmentalists, developers, sports groups, safety officials and business leaders.

Fried said the committee could help create a proposal ``beyond reproach.''

Environmentalist Maria Gutzeit said the broken connection between the polling and research and what people on the street were saying needs to be fixed on the next go-round.

``It needs to be brought out to the community so voters can understand what it's about, what it's going to cost them a year and more details about how it's going to be implemented,'' Gutzeit said.

Weste said people want something simpler than the earlier plan.

``We'll take our time and work with all of the people who want to be involved in the committee and address all of their concerns,'' she said.

In the past five years, the city has partnered with public agencies to acquire thousands of acres of public lands.

On Thursday, officials announced 150 acres of grassy oak-studded hills would be transferred before the end of the year to a newly formed conservation agency, the first installment of what will become a 6,000-acre nature preserve within two decades. The land will be donated by Newhall Land and Farming under agreements with the county for approving the Westridge tract and 21,000-home Newhall Ranch development.

The preserve would be a link in the greenbelt city officials hope will encircle the valley, along with Santa Clarita Woodlands Park, Towsley Canyon, Mentryville and the Angeles National Forest.

A $2 million endowment created by the developer to manage the land will be supplemented by a $24-a-year special assessment paid in perpetuity by homeowners in the new developments. Unlike city residents, the fee will be built in to their home purchases.

Weste, who was a key figure in the city's open space measure and whose hand was in the preserve deal from the beginning, is anxious to make another organized effort at securing open space.

``It's like painting a canvas,'' she said. ``If you didn't get your beautiful sunset right, you redo it.''

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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