So Many Suitors, So Few Decisions : Pressure Mounts on County to Decide What to Do With Prime Coastal Headland

The wild coastal headland is owned by Los Angeles County, and on the maps, it is tentatively listed as Palos Verdes Shoreline Park. But that designation is up for grabs.

Located in the southeast corner of Rancho Palos Verdes, hard up against the Los Angeles city limits and a San Pedro trailer park, the controversial, 53-acre wedge of land overlooking the sea has been attracting a lot of attention lately.

Developers want a hunk of the land for a golf course, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes wants it to remain open space and conservationists want to make the rugged canyon and coastal bluffs into a wild land park.

But no one can do anything with the land until Los Angeles County decides what to do first: keep it, sell it or give it away.

Critics contend that the county is dragging its feet and that years of indecision and mismanagement have allowed the area to deteriorate.

The rugged canyon and bluffs have been badly neglected, conservationists say. The county has plowed down weeds, killing the natural vegetation and destroying wildlife habitat, and then done little or nothing to protect the area.

Trails and a dirt road crisscross the canyon haphazardly without regard for the environmental integrity of the land. The rocky beaches and tide pools below the bluffs are badly littered with trash and plastic debris.

A walk down the steep, brushy slopes reveals that a variety of native peninsula plants still exist. There are sea kisses with small magenta flowers, an evergreen brush called lemonade berry and several varieties of ice plants.

A species of buckwheat attracts a close cousin of the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly. The spiny coastal cholla and prickly pear cactus provide habitat for birds like the cactus wren. Gnatcatchers are common to the area, wildlife experts said.

“What we need to do is re-establish the native plants and animals in this coastal community,” Jess Morton, a local wildlife expert, said as he hiked one of Shoreline’s brushy trails.

County officials doggedly refuse to say what they intend to do with Shoreline. Nor will they confirm or deny that the land was acquired for park purposes when the county bought the property in 1958 for $371,000.

“We have no current proposal for this piece of park property,” said county Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Jim Park. Then, realizing he’d uttered the forbidden park word, he quickly corrected himself, explaining the land was unclassified. No use has been proposed, he said.

With the amount of developable land rapidly diminishing on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the pressures to do something with this empty stretch are increasing. And conservationists fear that the financially strapped county may be planning to sell it to the highest bidder.

Records show Rancho Palos Verdes tried to acquire the land from the county last year, hoping to preserve it as open space. The county refused to transfer title or sell the land to the city for a nominal fee, officials said.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust formed in 1988 to acquire large blocks of undeveloped lands on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, wants to buy Shoreline Park, restore it to its natural state and then maintain it, conservancy officials said. But the county has yet to respond.

“We really don’t care who owns the park as long as it is preserved,” said Bill Ailor, conservancy president. He criticized county officials for refusing to turn over the land to Rancho Palos Verdes or make any kind of commitment to preserve it as open space.

The Shoreline parcel, which sits on an ancient landslide that has not moved for thousands of years, is zoned to prohibit construction of houses or commercial buildings. Only open space or recreational development is permitted, city officials said.

“However, until the county indicates what it will do, nothing can happen,” Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Paul Bussey said.

The developers of a nearby 260-acre housing project want part of the land to expand their planned golf course.

“Our thought has been to purchase the parklands for the city or the conservancy and the quid pro quo is that we get to use the top 35% of the land to put in two holes of the golf course,” said Mike Mohler, a spokesman for Barry Hon, one of the developers.

Hon’s Palos Verdes Land Holding Co., working in partnership with the Zuckerman Building Co., is planning a 116-home subdivision with an 18-hole golf course just west of Shoreline Park. Mohler said acquisition of the parklands would allow the developers to open the golf course and make it more attractive.

In addition to deeding two-thirds of the land to the city or the conservancy, he said the developers would be willing to put up $100,000 or more to help restore the parklands to their natural state.

Conservationists oppose development of any kind on the land, even a golf course, Ailor said.

In an effort to force the county to turn the land over for park use, he said the conservancy has gathered 2,000 signatures on petitions urging that the area be preserved.