PRESERVING WHITNEY CANYON : GROUP SEEKS BOND FUNDS TO BUY LAND.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Santa Clarita environmentalists are rallying again to transform Whitney Canyon - once targeted for an off-road vehicle park and condominium complex - into a nature park.

Activist Karen Pearson is submitting a request for funds to purchase the canyon land to the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit environmental group that is putting together a $270 million park initiative slated for the November election. The county Board of Supervisors must approve the measure before it is placed on the ballot.

``In my heart, I'm very concerned about losing habitat that is so rare and that is keeping so many creatures alive,'' said Pearson, who fought several years ago to save the 537-acre canyon from motocross racing.

But officials with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which would oversee the 400-acre park, said they would use any money gained from the bond measure to pay off existing debts and complete the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park.

``Our existing obligations have first call for any money,'' conservancy spokeswoman Rorie Skei said. ``We can't actively negotiate to buy land if we don't have any money.''

Among the conservancy's top priorities is doubling the size of the 4,000-acre Santa Clarita Woodlands Park and paying off $2.45 million of a $5 million land purchase for the park.

But Pearson remains undaunted. The owners of the canyon, Watt Industries and the children of deceased Westwood developer Jacob Albert, are willing to sell 400 acres for about $10 million, considerably less than the initial $26 million price tag for the entire site. The canyon is just south of the city and accessible at the eastern end of San Fernando Road in Newhall.

``The price is more attractive. It makes it more available,'' Pearson said. Last time, ``it was too expensive. It was too much money for any bond measure.''

Anxious to save the park, Pearson and other activists have lobbied the Santa Clarita City Council and the city Parks Commission for their support. But civic leaders said obtaining the land is just the start of developing a public park.

``Getting the piece of land is just the beginning of long-term effort,'' Commissioner Laurene Weste said. ``It's just the first step.''

Rick Putnam, the city's park and recreation director, said the city is interested in preserving Whitney as parkland.

``It's a gateway to our community,'' Putnam said. ``We would definitely be interested in having a say about the land and what it is used for.''

Pearson envisions a park where such animals as the black-tailed jack rabbit and coast horned lizard can roam freely and hikers can wander from Placerita Canyon to Whitney Canyon.

She said the park's unusual environment, which encompasses desert, mountain and coastal terrains, is worth saving.

``It is the last bastion for coastal sage,'' she said. ``Their habitat is shrinking. Anything coastal is dying out because people are buying and developing the coast.''

Several years ago, residential units and an off-road vehicle park were proposed for the site located between Placerita and Elsmere canyons. The latter is proposed as a regional landfill.

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Photo: (color) Karen Pearson has joined with other environm entalists to request money from a proposed $270 million park bond to buy Whitney Canyon.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News