WOODLAND HILLS : Conservancy Wants to Buy Development Site

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is negotiating to purchase up to 420 acres of pristine hillside in Woodlands Hills that is also the site of a proposed 108-home development, negotiators said Thursday.

If an agreement is reached, the deal would simultaneously halt the development and add the acreage to the conservancy’s 11,000-acre Mulholland Gateway Park.

“We hope to be able to purchase the land and make it into parkland,” said conservancy director John Diaz, who added that “cooperation is working in our favor for putting something together.”

The land is north of Mulholland Drive between Ellenita and Natoma avenues.

An attorney for the landowner and prospective developer also said negotiations were going smoothly.

“They are going really well. We’re on a positive plane,” said Chris Funk, who represents Florida-based Avatar Holdings Inc. and its subsidiary, Mulholland Hills Associates. “The conservancy staff has shown a strong interest in acquiring the property.”

The city of Los Angeles may also help purchase the land, said Cindy Miscikowski, planning deputy for City Councilman Marvin Braude.

Miscikowski said about $1 million in fees levied against previous developers to help pay for future park space is available to be spent in the area.

She said a recent draft environmental impact report indicates that the development would make “significant and severe impacts” on its surroundings.

“There would be a major hearing process on something like this,” she said. “It may get knocked down quite a bit.”