PARTIES AT EX-STREISAND ESTATE CAUSE FRICTION.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has the fanciest digs of any public agency in the state - its nine employees work at the $15 million, four-mansion gated estate donated by singer and actress Barbra Streisand in 1993.

Tucked away at the end of Ramirez Canyon, the palatial, 22-acre grounds do double duty: weddings can run up to $6,000 for the setting and garden tours cost $30 per adult.The fees add up to about $140,000 a year and help maintain the facility.

The events are being held without a required California Coastal Commission permit - a problem conservancy officials hope to clear up soon although fire evacuation, septic problems and traffic have to be dealt with.

It is those activities - with bands and up to 200 guests - without a permit, that drive the neighbors wild.

``You've got some really expensive office space up there and so in order to maintain it they have to have this catering facility,'' said Mindy Sheps, a West Los Angeles attorney who lives in the community. ``They've changed it from a residence to a wedding facility.''

``Barbra Streisand lived there peacefully and quietly. She was not a party person. Now during the summer every weekend there are events with bands.''

Conservancy executive director Joe Edmiston defends his offices as cost-efficient compared to other state facilities.

``People said the same thing about the Hearst Castle,'' Edmiston said. ``This is not the Hearst Castle, but it is a unique facility.''

The grounds are gorgeous with imported palms, gardens and a meadow Streisand made famous by a once-in-a-lifetime outdoor concert, but also rather ghostly with the handful of conservancy staff moving around the cavernous ``Barn,'' museum-reminiscent ``Art Deco'' house, and the main residence.

``There will be limits on vehicle trips and the number of people, which will emerge in the Coastal Commission permit,'' Edmiston said. ``We're prepared to do that so long as they're not so limited that we're shut down.''

Neighbors formed the Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund, and sued the conservancy in an attempt to halt the tours and weddings entirely. A Superior Court judge rejected the request for a permanent injunction, saying there is nothing in the law prohibiting such events in parks.

Roger Marzulla, the Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing neighbors, said the battle is over whether or not the conservancy is ``above the law.''

``The conservancy has taken the position that no one can make them do anything,'' he said. ``The neighbors can go suck eggs.''

Initially, the center was advertised as a research center to study the relatively rare ecosystem of the Santa Monica Mountains. A scholar-in-residence program was announced.

``We thought that meant it would be a quiet place where some people would go to think and that was fine, we could see some public good in that,'' Sheps said. ``But that idea was abandoned. There is now not pretext that there is any think tank up there.''

Edmiston, in a 1996 memo to the California Department of Finance, said the original plans were not as profitable as anticipated.

Russell Dalton, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, said he sought a scholar-in-residence chair in 1996 to write a book on environmental groups but was told he'd have to share the house with film crews and garden tours and pay for plumbing repairs.

``My sense was that they really didn't have any interest in the intellectual activities and that they see this as free office space, which is wonderful for the staff,'' Dalton said.

Conservancy officials say there still are research opportunities at the center and nonprofit groups get to use the the facility for a nominal fee.

Sheps said the neighborhood has been altered for the worse.

``It's changed from a place where kids and dogs played in the street to a place with constant traffic, and we're concerned about fire. There can be 200 people and staff at the end of that road, with one exit in a place that historically has burned more than any other in Malibu.''

The conservancy hopes state financing for a second access road from Kanan Dume Road will help. The conservancy holds an easement from a developer, who plans to build seven houses in the area, said conservancy staff counsel Laurie Collins.

``In the end, we'll probably make the broad, middle in the canyon more or less happy,'' Edmiston said. ``The extremes will never be happy. We'll move on.''

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Photo: This mansion on the former Barbra Streisand estate serves as the headquarters of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Tina Gerson/Daily News