Towsley Canyon Land Deal May Foil Dump Plan : Parks: The conservancy’s purchase of 453 acres makes approval of an adjacent landfill unlikely.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has acquired 453 acres of Towsley Canyon in the western Santa Clarita Valley, boosting prospects the land will become a state park instead of a dump.

But the purchase increases pressure to turn nearby Elsmere Canyon into a dump, county sanitation officials said.

“For all practical purposes, the coffin has been nailed on the proposal to turn Towsley Canyon into a landfill,” Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, said Thursday.

Los Angeles County sanitation officials acknowledged that the move by the conservancy--a state parkland acquisition agency--effectively blocks development of a dump in Towsley Canyon and increases pressure to instead put a dump in Elsmere Canyon, just a mile east of Santa Clarita.

“I would think it would be very difficult to get approval for the Towsley landfill if there is a state park right next door,” said Don Nellor, the head of the solid waste planning division of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. “This certainly makes Elsmere more imperative.”

The conservancy envisions Towsley Canyon as a key part of the proposed Santa Clarita Woodlands Park that would stretch north from the Santa Susana Mountains above Granada Hills into the Santa Clarita Valley.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) is a strong supporter of the proposed park who opposes using Towsley and Elsmere canyons as landfills, preferring the more expensive alternative of hauling trash out of the area by rail.

“The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors would fill in Yosemite if it could,” Davis said. “Now Towsley will remain a natural beauty spot.”

But Nellor warned that “if the conservancy keeps taking away proposed landfill sites, we may be forced to put to emergency use a site that shouldn’t be developed.”

Nellor said that even with a park there, county officials may be able to put a much smaller landfill in Towsley Canyon, but he acknowledged that the conservancy’s lands lie directly across the only two roads into the area and the conservancy could hinder use of the roads by garbage trucks.

If alternate access routes into the steep-sided canyon could be found, the county could put a 110-million-ton landfill, about half the size originally proposed, on land the county would acquire in the western portion of the canyon, Nellor said. The districts have already spent about $700,000 to purchase options on at least 1,500 acres in Towsley Canyon, Nellor said.

The conservancy paid $6.5 million to acquire two chunks of land in Towsley Canyon--a 180-acre parcel at the eastern entrance of the canyon and a 273-acre piece in the heart of it.

The complex deal calls for Rivendale Ranch Associates to purchase and resell to the conservancy 273 acres that the agency cannot purchase directly.

Rivendale entered the deal because it wants to build a 58-acre commercial and residential development along The Old Road near the entrance to Towsley Canyon, and prefers to have a state park rather than a dump nearby, Edmiston said.

Rivendale sold the 180-acre plot to the conservancy for $3 million, Edmiston said.

The 273-acre portion was primarily owned by Joel Brandon, who had it appraised for $4.5 million. But the conservancy’s appraisal valued the property at $3.5 million. State law bars the agency from paying more for the land than the state’s appraised value.

Rivendale agreed to resell the land to the conservancy for $3.5 million, absorbing the $1-million loss to keep the dump away from its proposed development, Edmiston said.

One reason Brandon wanted an extra $1 million was to pay for cleaning up pollution from a leaking oil well on the property, Edmiston said. Brandon will be responsible for the cleanup, he said.

453 acres of canyon has been acquired for state parkland.