From Saturday, December 1, 2001 Peninsula News --

City's Preserve Program Finds New Life

   RPV -- In an effort to please the environmental agencies that hold the purse strings for the nearly 700 acres of open space land, Rancho Palos Verdes officials are working with renewed vigor to complete a Natural Communities Conservation Planning program.
   According to Director of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Joel Rojas and Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy Executive Director Keith Lenard, agency representatives recently indicated that they would support a new NCCP that shows the preservation of nearly all remaining coastal open space in the city. If such an NCCP can be agreed upon, the agencies have stated that they would support funding for the acquisition of hundreds of acres of open space in Portuguese Bend that is currently in the hands of Private landowners.
   Past attempts at creating an NCCP often ended in discouraging fashion. As NCCP's were originally intended to show what remaining open space would be preserved and what would be developed, landowners and environmentalists in RPV rarely agreed. Landowners often asked that large swaths of their properties be set aside for potential development. This created a patchwork of open space, something that environmental groups and agencies, such as the State Department of Fish and Game, found unacceptable. Connectivity between parcels of habitat, they said, was the key to successful preservation.
   Today, however, with a confluence of events taking place during the last six months, city representatives believe that an NCP can be created that includes all but 75 acres of RPV coastal open space. A major change is the landowners' willingness to sell their properties to the city, which was announced this summer.
   What we're trying to do iis accomplish something we weren't able to through years of working through earlier NCCPs" said Rojas "We had received comments then that [the city] was going to have to acquire that property, which at the time seemed pretty unrealistic. Now, for a number of variables, including the landowners being willing to sell, a City Council that is very su[[ortive of the acquisition and the conservancy and the city coming together, those have caused a change where we now feel we can do an NCCP with a map that preserves almost everything."
   According to Lenard, environmental agencies were most concerned with preservation in two areas of the city. The fate of the first, Upper Point Vicente Park surrounding City Hall, was decided when the City Council in October excluded its use as a portion of the proposed Long Point Resort golf course, and promised at least some preservation. The second, Lower Filiorum in Portuguese Bend, is slated for both a housing tract and a wildlife corridor which, according to Rojas, encompasses the "eastern third of the property." The corridor, according to both Lenard and Rojas, is what the agencies were looking for.
   "This is much different than previous NCCPs in the city," said Lenard. "Only 75 acres of the total available land is being considered for development, with some 1,500 acres to be preserved."

Next Step

   When the NCCp was last before the City Council, three maps, or alternatives, were presented. One showed what the landowners desired, another what environmental groupa and agencies desired, and a third acted as a compromise between the two. Under council direction, Rojas is in the process of analyzing the three maps and will present a report on those to council sometime early next year. He said that the NCCP process is "very public," and that recent events allow it to move "full speed ahead."
   One of those maps will reflect both recent changes and hypothetical situations, such as the city's purchase of private land in Portuguese Bend.
   "I met with the agencies to try to come up with a preserve design that they could support that would incorporate the land deals [with landowners Barry Hon and Jim York]," said Rojas. "The agencies like the idea because they agreed it would solve a number of issues. Drawing those into an NCCP map now assumes the acquisitions and makes a statement of conservation."
   Does this mean that the acquisition is guaranteed? No, said Rojas, but a finalized deal would help the NCCP move forward. At the same time, saod Lenard, a strong NCCP will "create a complete solution" to the concerns of state and federal agencies and "create new opportunities for funding" for the acquisition.
   "The people who hold the purse strings for the acquisition ask us, 'Well, is the land in an NCCP?' We want to be in a position to say yes, either we're close to an NCCP and everyone is agreeing on the design, or we have a completed NCCP," said Rojas. "That will help the cause of the acquisition."
   Conservancy and city officials agree that the land acquisition cannot be accomplished without outside funding. At a purchase price of $39,000 per acre, or $30 million, the city needs funds from the Wildlife Conservation Board to finalize any deal. Without support from the agencies, the funds are nearly impossible to obtain. The city discovered this a few months ago when Upper Point Vicente was slated as a golf course, much to the dismay of agency representatives, who in turn refused to support funding for the land deal.
   Conservancy efforts, in the meantime, continue in the private sector in an attempt to raise a portion of the purchase price.
   If all goes well, Lenard sees a wildlife preserve that standss in perpetuity and acts as an outdoor classroom and part of the city's enduring legacy. The conservancy, Lenard anticipates, will manage the property's habitat and recreational aspects, and a resident-based steering committee currently assigned to Forrestal Canyon will be expanded to cover the Portuguese Bend preserve.
   "This is going to be the community's preserve, not only from a funding perspective but in how it is managed and used." said Lenard