Santa Monica Mountains : Seizing of Land Challenged
Issuing stern warnings that the Legislature could strip it of funding, two state senators Tuesday questioned the head of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy over whether the agency is overstepping its authority.
In the Senate’s first oversight hearing of the parklands agency, Sens. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Dan McCorquodale (D-Modesto) grilled executive director Joseph T. Edmiston about the agency’s operations and finances.
Of paramount concern, the two lawmakers said, is whether the conservancy has acted properly in trying to condemn a portion of Soka University’s Calabasas campus in order to acquire it as parkland.
“The fact is it’s private property,” said Wright. “I have a real hard time having government come in, condemn and take private property.”
In a scolding tone, McCorquodale told Edmiston: “If you run willy-nilly on condemnation, we can always pull you back. It only takes a simple majority of the Legislature to eliminate you.”
An arm of the conservancy, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, filed condemnation proceedings in 1992 to seize 245 acres of pristine land in Calabasas that Edmiston described Tuesday as “the most beautiful spot in the Santa Monica Mountains.”
Attorneys for Soka and the conservancy are set to square off on the issue in state appeals court in Ventura on Dec. 16.
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