Developer Denies Pressuring U.S. to Open Park Road

Federal officials were not politically pressured into supporting a controversial proposal for a road through Cheeseboro Canyon Park, the road’s developer told a homeowner group.

“I don’t think this deal looks that way,” Peter N. Kyros Jr., general counsel of Potomac Investment Associates, told the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation Thursday night.

Kyros also disclosed that Potomac plans to buy and develop a 450-acre parcel east of Agoura Hills and south of the national park.

The proposed road would be built after a land swap between Potomac and the National Park Service. The Maryland-based developer proposes building a four-lane road on 60 acres of land it would receive from the Park Service in exchange for 800 acres of the developer’s neighboring property in Ventura County.

The road through the national park would provide access to Jordan Ranch, which Potomac has on option to buy from entertainer Bob Hope. A proposal by Potomac and the PGA Tour Inc. to build 1,513 homes and a tournament golf course at the ranch is pending this summer before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Daniel R. Kuehn, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, initially rejected the road proposal last year. He was asked to reconsider by the Interior Department officials who had been lobbied by the PGA’s attorney, a former law partner of William P. Clark Jr., secretary of the Interior from 1983 to 1985.

Last month, Kuehn tentatively agreed to the land swap and said it would provide the best opportunity for the park to acquire at least some of the Jordan Ranch property.

‘Gun to His Head’

“We’re assuming Dan Kuehn has a gun to his head,” said Dave Brown, chairman of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. The group, which sponsored Thursday night’s meeting, says the road and the development will detract from the park’s pristine quality and its recreational value.

Kyros responded that, “You folks have to ask yourselves whether Dan Kuehn is a man who is likely to bow to political pressure. . . . He doesn’t seem like that kind of man to me.”

Kuehn, in an interview Friday, denied that he was pressured. The deal sprung from the dearth of federal funds available for more parkland, he said.

“The endorsement that I’ve made of the proposal is in the best interest of the park,” Kuehn said.

At the Las Virgenes meeting Thursday, Kyros defended other aspects of the proposed road and the Jordan Ranch project.

Brown and others allege that much of the land to be given to the Park Service in exchange for the road is rugged hillside or uplands not easily accessible to the public.

“Not all of it is ‘billy goat country,’ ” Kyros told the 25 homeowners. “A substantial portion is flat--relatively flat--developable property.”

In addition to Potomac’s plan to contribute $1 million for a park headquarters and visitors’ center, the PGA will give the Park Service its parking revenue from an annual golf tournament to be held at Jordan Ranch, Kyros added. He declined to estimate the amount of money involved, but said as many as 10,000 spectators might attend the weeklong tournament on each of its two weekend days.

Kyros also disclosed plans to buy and develop 450 acres owned by Encino real estate developer Jerry Y. Oren. Oren was convicted last year of using a fraudulent letter to inflate the price of land he sold to the Park Service. In 1985, Los Angeles County planners rejected Oren’s proposal for more than 1,000 condominiums and houses on the 450-acre tract, along with a small shopping center, light industry and warehouses.

Kyros said Thursday the firm has an option to buy the land and eventually might propose 100 to 200 homes there. On the parcel’s southern edge, next to the Ventura Freeway, Potomac would propose a combination of office and retail development, Kyros said.

Brown, of the homeowners’ federation, said the Agoura communities probably will welcome Potomac’s less ambitious development plans for the land. But he cast a suspicious eye on Potomac’s motives.

“He’s coming in and making a good offer to the community,” Brown said, “with the idea that that will soften up the opposition to the road and the Jordan Ranch project.”