WHITNEY CANYON SPARED DESTRUCTION.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Whitney Canyon, studded with oaks and sycamores and home to a rarity in Southern California - a year-round creek - will never again face the threat of development.

The city of Santa Clarita and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Tuesday finalized the purchase of 442 acres of land in the canyon for $4.9 million.

``We have waited a long time for this,'' said Mayor Frank Ferry.

The city and the conservancy will jointly own Whitney, a beautiful canyon with a closed-canopy oak forest tucked in the San Gabriel Mountains, south of the Antelope Valley Freeway at San Fernando Road, officials said.

Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, was instrumental in obtaining state money for the purchase and resolving technical issues that held up the completion of the sale for almost 10 months, officials said.

``Our aim is to get the public into the park as soon as possible,'' said Rick Gould, the city's director of parks, recreation and community services.

Santa Clarita is expected to spend about $300,000 in the coming months to make basic road improvements as well as to install signs and fencing in the canyon in preparation for public use, Gould said.

Planners envision trails linking Whitney with nearby Placerita Canyon and the Angeles National Forest. And the accessibility to the canyon - from an existing park-and-ride area at the east end of San Fernando Road - is a big plus, said Joe Edmiston, the executive director of the conservancy.

``Preservation of Whitney Canyon had been one of our highest priorities,'' Edmiston said.

The conservancy expects to match the city's contributions later this year with money from the state parks bond measure approved in November by voters, Edmiston said.

Santa Clarita's Open Space Acquisition Plan's top priority is to create a greenbelt around the Santa Clarita Valley, stretching across the San Gabriel and the Santa Susana mountain ranges, and to create corridors to the Angeles National Forest.

This is a major step toward achieving that goal, Gould said.

The city and the conservancy have long sought ownership of the canyon, treasured because its forests and seasonal waterfalls provide a rare urban habitat for wildlife and a corridor for animals traversing the San Gabriel Mountains.

At least six federally endangered species thrive in the area, which also provides an important water source for a variety of wildlife, conservancy, officials said.

Endangered species that live in the area include the California gnat catcher, the least Bell's vireo, the unarmored three-spined stickleback, the Santa Ana sucker fish, the southwestern arroyo toad and the slender horned spineflower.

Former owner Ray Watt bought the canyon from a rancher for an estimated $1 million in the late 1980s and submitted plans to Los Angeles County to build houses and condominiums on the property.

The land also was offered as a buffer to the planned Elsmere Canyon landfill to the south, but after the dump proposal fizzled in the face of fierce opposition, Watt offered the land for sale.

At the same time, the county Parks and Recreation Department had planned an off-road vehicle park in Whitney, a proposal that drew fire from nearby residents and The Walt Disney Co., which has a filming ranch over a ridge in Placerita Canyon.