{"id":1057,"date":"2013-03-20T11:35:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T18:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2022-08-02T17:27:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T00:27:57","slug":"mrca-to-purchase-612-acres-of-ladyface-mtn-for-pubic-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2013\/03\/20\/mrca-to-purchase-612-acres-of-ladyface-mtn-for-pubic-use\/","title":{"rendered":"MRCA to purchase 612 acres of Ladyface Mtn for pubic use"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source of this article: Zev’s Blog<\/a>, March 20, 2013<\/p>\n

Lovers of the Santa Monica Mountains soon will have 612 acres of new reasons to cherish the wilderness expanse at the edge of one of the world\u2019s largest cities.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week approved two major acquisitions by the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority<\/a> totaling 612 acres, including a vast expanse of land on the south face of the distinctive peak known as Ladyface Mountain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of interior, non-coastal acquisitions, there hasn\u2019t been anything this big in a long, long time,\u201d said Paul Edelman, chief of natural resources and planning for the organization.<\/p>\n

Preserving the Ladyface Mountain property\u2014more than 525 acres in unincorporated Cornell, near Agoura Hills\u2014means that a huge bloc of wildlife habitat will remain unaltered by development or other human activity. \u201cIt will always be there,\u201d Edelman said. \u201cIt\u2019s something we can count on.\u201d The iconic views of the property, with its dramatic rock outcroppings, will continue to dominate the vista seen by those who travel along Kanan Dume Road.<\/p>\n

Beyond the unspoiled beauty of the landscape itself, he said, placing the property under public ownership opens up vast new possibilities for how visitors will be able to use it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates a trail opportunity that few people have ever even dreamed of,\u201d he said. For the first time, he said, the Pentachaeta Trail<\/a> in Westlake Village will be able to connect across Triunfo Canyon<\/a> and into the heart of the mountains.<\/p>\n

The other property, in Escondido Canyon near Malibu, is much smaller\u2014just over 86 acres. But its environmental, aesthetic and recreational significance is immense, Edelman said.<\/p>\n

A central feature is a deeply shaded creek that flows year-round. Someone\u2014no one\u2019s sure exactly who\u2014long ago created \u201ca little bit of a Shangri-La\u201d on the property, with a pond, terraces and picnic areas, Edelman said.<\/p>\n

Both properties have drawn their share of headlines over the years.<\/p>\n

Long-running development battles raged over an on-again, off-again plan<\/a> to turn the Escondido Canyon property into a New Age retreat, featuring 95 of the Mongolian tents known as yurts, along with swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness facilities and meeting rooms. Now the property\u2014made up of 34 separate parcels\u2014will remain undeveloped.<\/p>\n

Ladyface Mountain also has attracted plenty of attention, including a cheeky 2010 April Fool\u2019s Day prank<\/a> by the local newspaper, the Acorn, which claimed that a massive sculpture and aerial tramway\u2014or \u201ceven a small bullet train\u201d\u2014were in the works for the site.<\/p>\n

All joking aside, the Acorn also spent some time exploring the derivation of the peak\u2019s unusual name<\/a>\u2014said to be a poetic reference to a Native American legend of the mountain\u2019s distinctive outline\u2014and concluded that it \u201chad more to do with modern day marketing than Chumash Indian lore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legend that tells of a lady peering into the skies waiting for the return of her warrior lover was fabricated by Art Whizin, a real estate developer and businessman who moved to the area in 1954 and wanted to build a restaurant on the crest of the mountain,\u201d the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

When this latest acquisition by the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority is completed, the vast majority of land around the mountain will be in public hands and immune to any such development proposals in the future.<\/p>\n

The purchase of both properties, at a total cost of $8.3 million, is being funded by 3rd<\/sup> District funds generated by, among other sources, Proposition A<\/a>, the parks measure approved by county voters in 1992 and 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source of this article: Zev’s Blog, March 20, 2013 Lovers of the Santa Monica Mountains soon will have 612 acres of new reasons to cherish the wilderness expanse at the edge of one of the world\u2019s largest cities. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week approved two major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,18,40,33,19,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budget-and-spending","category-conejo-valley","category-history","category-mrca","category-santa-monica-mountains","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3630,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/3630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}