Group Meets Goal to Buy Land to Preserve Ocean View

A group of residents who worked for a year to raise enough money to buy a small piece of oceanview land at the top of Las Pulgas Canyon said Wednesday that they have reached their goal.

Escrow on the one-third acre plot known as the Las Casas-Grenola Viewsite will close Aug. 31, said Blake Mirkin, who was among a small group of neighbors who solicited donations from neighbors and government agencies to buy the land for $265,000.

Mirkin said the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Coastal Conservancy and the county and city of Los Angeles each gave $25,000 to set aside the land for public use. The community donated $180,000 in a fund-raising campaign by the Committee to Save the Las Casas-Grenola Viewsite.

Mirkin credits Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski for helping his group secure funds from the government sources.