Agreement Eludes Berman, County in Land-Swap Talks

Negotiations between Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) and a representative of Los Angeles County concerning a complicated land-swap proposal did not produce a final agreement Thursday, a Berman aide said.

“The negotiations are ongoing,” said Berman aide Marc Litchman. “There’s optimism that it can be resolved. There’s still more work to be done.”

Former Beverly Hills Mayor Robert K. Tanenbaum, who was brought in by county officials to represent their interests in the negotiations, was en route from Washington to Los Angeles on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

The land swap involves proposals to turn Elsmere Canyon near Santa Clarita into a public trash dump and to set aside strips of land across Nevada for lines that would carry electricity to Los Angeles from a coal-burning power plant in that state.

In return for loss of those wild lands, Berman proposes preserving several scenic canyons as park land, including three canyons west of the San Diego Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains. Those three--Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons--are owned by the county and the county sanitation districts, which want to hold onto them for future landfill sites.

Under Berman’s plan, the Hansen Dam Recreation Area, a run-down park in the East San Fernando Valley, would receive $300 million in dumping fees from the Elsmere landfill. In addition, the Lopez Canyon Landfill, operated by the city of Los Angeles above Lake View Terrace, would be closed.

Gene Smith, Berman’s chief Washington aide, said an agreement will have to be reached in the next several weeks for the measure to be considered in this session of Congress. The House is scheduled to take its monthlong summer break on Aug. 7 and to adjourn in early to mid-October.