2nd Day of Rallies Held to Protest Loss of Open Space

Opponents of development at Ahmanson Ranch and Pierce College rallied with environmentalists seeking to preserve the Ballona Wetlands on Sunday, warning that Southern California is losing valuable open space on many fronts.

More than 100 people converged on Santa Monica City Hall for the rally organized by the Earth-Water-Air-L.A. coalition as part of Earth Day events.

The group held a similar rally Saturday, when residents and environmentalists marched from El Escorpion Park in West Hills to Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The events were aimed at drawing attention to the need to save open space threatened with development, said Elizabeth Johnson, a

spokeswoman for the coalition.

Members of the Santa Monica City Council spoke in support of preserving the Ballona Wetlands from developments, which include the massive Playa Vista residential and office project.

The speakers also included Margo Murman, president of the Coalition to Save the Farm, a group fighting a proposal for a golf course on agricultural land at Pierce College.

“The importance of saving the farm is it’s one of the last pieces of agricultural land in the Los Angeles area,” Murman said. “It’s also an extremely important educational asset.”

Murman said her group hopes to show that the Pierce College farm can be totally self-sufficient.

“We want to show that agriculture and the environment can be mutually beneficial,” she said.

Susan Genelin of the group Save Open Space attended the rally to voice opposition to Washington Mutual’s proposed development of Ahmanson Ranch with 3,050 homes, 400,000 square feet of office and commercial buildings and two championship golf courses.

“The Ahmanson Ranch project will destroy the airshed and water quality in Malibu Creek,” Genelin said, voicing concern about how the development may use creek water and pollute the watershed.

Speakers linked the many projects in calling for a regional approach to preserving the environment.

“All of these projects are harmful and they will encircle Los Angeles,” Genelin said. “Los Angeles will just be squeezed between these bookends of foul air and foul water.”

Those who attended the rally walked to Venice Pier for festivities, including a puppet parade and talks by naturalists and historians, before continuing on to Del Rey Lagoon.