Park Officials Drop Plan to Buy Mountain Land From Bob Hope

An official of Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District in Ventura County said Wednesday that plans to buy a pristine tract of mountain land from comedian Bob Hope were abandoned after representatives of the entertainer refused to budge from a land appraisal nearly 20 times higher than the district’s estimate of fair value.

Hope’s popularity gave pause to park planners, district spokesman Rick Johnson said. Instigating a condemnation action against Hope--another option in public acquisition disputes--is untenable because such an action might be perceived as “challenging sainthood,” he said.

The district’s move came after two years of sporadic negotiations between attorneys for Hope and park officials over 706 acres of undeveloped land high in the mountains of eastern Ventura County, about halfway between the unincorporated community of Oak Park and the City of Simi Valley.

Area Called China Flat

The area, known as China Flat, spreads over a grassy plateau dotted with scrub oaks and chaparral. In February, 1984, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy gave Rancho Simi district $1 million earmarked for buying China Flat as part of a state program to expand public parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The district appraised the remote tract, home to golden eagles, prairie falcons, deer and an occasional mountain lion, at $1,100 an acre.

But Hope’s appraisal was $20,000 an acre, Johnson said, and the financial gulf was never narrowed.

A spokesman for the 82-year-old comedian, who has a home in Toluca Lake, said the negotiations failed because Hope’s attorneys “didn’t think it was the best deal possible. That’s business.”

Second Tract

The spokesman, Ward Grant, said selling the highly prized parcel also would lower the value of the 2,900 acres next to China Flat that Hope owns.

The conservancy this week withdrew the $1 million grant from the district and placed it in a special fund for other park projects benefiting residents of the Conejo and Simi valleys. The district was allowed to keep $196,000 in interest earned on the grant. That money will be used to develop an equestrian center in the hills south of Simi Valley, Johnson said.

Although registering disappointment with the failure of negotiations, Joseph Edmiston, conservancy executive director, predicted that China Flat would not be parceled out to developers.

“The development costs up there would be absolutely prohibitive,” Edmiston said. He also said the land is designated as open space under Ventura County’s land-use plan, so a vote by the county Board of Supervisors would be required before development would be permitted.

Could Seek Concessions

Instead, Edmiston theorized, Hope’s advisers may envision committing the China Flat area to undisturbed parkland in exchange for county zoning concessions that would enable housing development on flatter land that Hope owns closer to Agoura Hills.

“I would imagine Bob Hope himself is not interested in developing” China Flat, the conservancy chief said. “However, he has historically held land for appreciation and then sold it.”

Though Rancho Simi planners are not worried that the land is in danger of being overrun with housing tracts, Johnson said, they are mindful of Hope’s persuasiveness if he decides to seek a zoning accommodation with the county that could result in development on the site.

“Bob Hope has a very positive image,” he said. “We certainly can’t discount his popularity.”