Conservancies Buy Firehouse Hill

Coveted for decades by the local environmental community and park officials, the nearly 200-acre Firehouse Hill parcel has been purchased and will be preserved as open space.

The property at Las Virgenes and Mureau roads is believed to have been sold for $6 million.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority was the lead agency for the sale, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Los Angeles County also contributed to the purchase from seller Fred Sands.

To celebrate the purchase, the conservancy, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority will hold a dedication ceremony Saturday at 10 a.m. just north of the Malibu/Las Virgenes exit off of the 101 freeway.

Named for Fire Station 125, which sits at its base, the hillside once owned by late comedian Bob Hope acts as part of a symbolic open space gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains for northbound drivers on U.S. 101 descending the Calabasas Grade.

The mix of oak savanna and oak woodland habitats is classified as a Los Angeles County Significant Ecological Area.

Calabasas planning commissioner Dave Brown said that although the acreage is comparatively small, Firehouse Hill is the most important acquisition in the Santa Monicas since the purchases of the Ahmanson Ranch property in 2003 and King Gillette Ranch in 2005.

"If you're driving north all the way from San Diego this is the first time you encounter a typical California landscape from the freeway," he said. "You come over that crest and get a magnificent panoramic view all the way out to Boney Mountain. And if you look to the right, you get Firehouse Hill coming all the way down to the freeway. It tells you you've left the city. It's a breath of fresh air. A blast of fresh air."

Firehouse Hill is at a transition point between the Simi Hills and the Santa Monicas. Brown said the property's ridgeline connects it deeply into the Ahamanson Ranch property and Cheeseboro Canyon. He said that the hill serves as part of a wildlife corridor and that the property could one day provide recreational access into the mountains directly off the freeway.

The Firehouse Hill property has faced numerous development plans over the years, including the Continental Communities proposal. That plan would have resulted in the development of a large number of condos and houses on the land.

Firehouse Hill is part of a landslide area, and the potentially high costs of developing on the geologically unstable parcel helped delay its development, Brown said.