The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to give the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy the opportunity to buy city-owned land before property owners whose land is adjacent to the mountain zone. This is an effort to protect remaining wildlife habitats in the city from being developed. The “Own a Piece of LA” program, launched in 2009, identified city-owned pieces of land that were deemed undevelopable and offered them to adjacent property owners. Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Nithya Rama introduced the new ordinance, saying that, “Engineering innovation has advanced in the last decades,” which means land could be developed by property owners. “Wildlife habitat connectivity is so essential to the survival of the cornerstone species we share our Santa Monica Mountains with, and many areas are in serious danger of being blocked if we do not act urgently and consciously,” said Paul Edelman, Chief Biologist of the Conservancy. Councilman Koretz said, “It’s critical that we be certain we’re not inadvertently selling off parcels for development that could obstruct the very linkages we’ve been working so hard to protect.”
