For now, I just stuffed the max Value into a field and am using that to set the default Max value (i.e., Max(Model.YAxisRangeMax.GetValueOrDefault(Model.YAxisMaxDefault)), which seems to be working (I set the max to 1.1 X the actual max value). Since the end user can also select different chart types, I added another property for StackedArea YAxisMax (3 x max). Let me know if there is a better way.
Thanks!