Mountains Conservancy Acquires Circle X Ranch ‘in Nick of Time’

Months of squabbling between two state agencies officially ended Friday when authorities paid $5.85 million for a scenic ridge-top tract in the Santa Monica Mountains.

At his Hollywood district office, state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) delivered a king-size check to the Boy Scouts of America, previous owner of the parkland known as Circle X Ranch south of Newbury Park.

The ranch, at 1,655 acres, is the largest property ever purchased by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires parklands and trails in the mountains.

Joe Edmiston, director of the mountains conservancy, said the purchase came “just in the nick of time” to prevent the land from being developed.

The Boy Scouts, which sold the land to raise funds for construction of a waterfront sports center in San Pedro, almost were forced to sell the land to builders to pay for their new facility, officials said.

“This purchase will prevent the land from being the exclusive property of wealthy landowners,” Roberti said.

Grounds Open to Public

The Boy Scouts will still have access to Circle X, but the grounds will be open to the public starting today, Edmiston said.

With more than 600 camping sites, the newly acquired land doubles public camping facilities in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Circle X also has 22 miles of hiking trails, a swimming pool, an archery range and basketball and volleyball courts.

The cordial ceremony Friday belied the interagency fighting that began when the mountains conservancy, which did not have enough money for the Circle X purchase, persuaded the Legislature to lend it money from the budget of the state Coastal Conservancy.

“All of a sudden we found out about this line item inserted in the state budget,” said Don Coppock, the Coastal Conservancy’s project manager for the Circle X. “There wasn’t a phone call or a written request concerning the expenditure. It just appeared.”

The Coastal Conservancy then angered the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy by demanding in December that the mountains agency use $900,000 of its cash reserves to guarantee the loan. Edmiston’s group said it could not afford that.

The stalemate was resolved last month when the Coastal Conservancy dropped that requirement.

Coppock said his agency acquiesced only after it was “strong-armed” by high-ranking state government officials, including Roberti, who is the Senate’s president pro tem, and members of Gov. George Deukmejian’s Administration.

Edmiston described the state agencies’ wrangling as “extremely unusual.” It occurred because the Coastal Commission isn’t used to being ordered how to appropriate its funds, he said.

The mountains conservancy pledged to sell three of its park properties if it is unable to repay the loan within 18 months. The parkland, in Ventura County, Studio City and Malibu, is worth more than $12 million, twice the value of the loan, Edmiston said.

The Circle X will be owned and managed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint venture of the mountains conservancy and the Thousand Oaks-based Conejo Recreation and Park district.