Bill Could Block Paving of Road Across Parkland

Jumping into the battle over road construction in Topanga State Park, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would prevent Reseda Boulevard from being paved through parkland in the hills above Tarzana.

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles) said the bill would stop the city of Los Angeles from requiring a developer to pave the street all the way to Mulholland Drive, over the objections of two park agencies whose lands the road would damage.

The paved roadway, which would be built on a city easement, “is unnecessary and a potential environmental disaster for Topanga State Park,” Friedman said in an interview prior to a Friday news conference at which he discussed his proposal.

The city a decade ago required that Reseda Boulevard be extended and paved over a city right of way as a condition of approval of a luxury housing development. The long-delayed development, now being built by Harlan Lee & Associates, ends at the boundary of state parklands hundreds of yards from Mulholland Drive.

The development firm has said it would gladly forgo the expense of paving Reseda across the state parklands, which are owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and state Department of Parks and Recreation. But city fire and public works officials have refused to lift the paving requirement or agree to other design changes sought by environmentalists and state parks officials, according to City Councilman Marvin Braude, who, like Friedman, represents the area.

Friedman said the Reseda extension was mandated at a time when more development was slated for the mountains, and is inappropriate now that much of the area is parkland.

Under Friedman’s bill, which he said will get a hearing next week in Sacramento, state parks officials could “impose conditions and restrictions” on the road if needed to avert “substantial damage” to Topanga State Park. The measure would not apply to state parklands elsewhere.

While eliminating paving and reducing the width of the road, Friedman said the measure would still allow Reseda to be linked to Mulholland as an unpaved, gated road, accessible only to emergency vehicles.

The measure is “not intended to be a chip or leverage” in talks with the city, according to Friedman. “It’s intended to change the law and protect the state park,” he said, adding he “would hope there would be no opposition.”

Braude--under attack from environmentalists for failing to extract a no-paving promise from city bureaucrats--could not be reached for comment on the Friedman proposal.

Norman Boyer, the city’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento, said he was unaware of the controversy or of the Friedman bill, and had received no instructions on how to deal with it.