Panel OKs Bill That Threatens Recreation Area : Santa Monicas: The area could be dropped from the federal parks system under the congressional measure.

WASHINGTON —  Channel Islands National Park would remain in the federal parks system but the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area may not under a measure approved Wednesday by a key congressional committee.

The provision is part of a bill that calls on the National Park Service--which has 368 properties--to issue an annual list of holdings that should be eliminated from federal oversight.

As approved by the House National Resources Committee, it spares the nation’s 54 national parks from the possible scrutiny of a commission likened by critics to the panel created to close military bases. But the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is one of the 314 National Park Service properties that could come under such scrutiny if the measure passes.

Rep. Anthony Beilenson (R-Woodland Hills), who in 1978 authored the legislation that created the Santa Monicas, has said he is confident a strong enough case can be made for the recreation area’s importance so that it remains under federal oversight.

On Wednesday, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who signed on to the legislation as a co-sponsor, said he also is hopeful that the Santa Monicas will be spared.

“There’s no question in my mind that the Santa Monicas will get more than a fair evaluation as a national treasure. And I think they are a national treasure,” Gallegly said. “But you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere as to when you have to stop acquiring more land.”

However, the National Parks and Conservation Assn., an environmental group that recently warned that the Republican-sponsored legislation would have a devastating effect on Ventura County’s two federal parks, said Wednesday that the 21,000-acre Santa Monica recreation area is still threatened.

Initially the group, an independent watchdog of the nation’s parks, supported an effort to reduce National Park Service holdings that are not of national significance. But the association later came out in opposition to the bill, despite assurances from its sponsor, Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., that it will not create a park closure commission.

“Every remaining park unit is in danger,” said association spokeswoman Kathryn E. Westra. “There’s certainly been people in the past who’ve called the Santa Monicas just another urban park. It’s ludicrous.”

The bill will come up for a vote before the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.

Westra described the measure as a park closing bill because it creates an 11-member commission to determine whether the 314 non-exempt properties under federal watch are “nationally significant.” It also gives the commission power to forward to Congress a list of parks it wants to shut down or sell, she says, when the mechanism already exists.

Hefley spent much of Wednesday’s debate dismissing that charge. Congress will retain authority over which parks it keeps, unlike the military base closings process that gives a civilian panel power to close installations, he said.

Gallegly said the bipartisan support lining up in favor of the bill--former Resources Committee Chairman and environmental advocate Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) is a backer--should “placate any thoughts by folks who think this is going to hurt national parks.”

“If there was any threat at all, I think you would have heard him screaming very loud on it,” he added.

Hefley said the National Park Service has grown to include too many sundry properties he believes fail to meet the “significance” test.

“We even have parks to commemorate a Supreme Court decision,” he said of a site in Topeka, Kan., honoring the Brown vs. Board of Education case that set national policy on school desegregation. “It’s just gone pell-mell so we have a park system we can’t afford.

The Channel Islands park has a budget of $3.5 million this year and attracted 175,226 visitors in 1994. The Santa Monica recreation area, which drew 384,324 visitors last year, has a $3.9-million budget, but acquisition costs have exceeded $150 million in the last 17 years.

Roberson is a reporter for States News Service.