Benefactor’s Loan May Preserve 1,500 Pristine Acres : Recreation: The wilderness near Ramona, once intended for development, is now likely to be added to the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Open Space Park.

A benefactor who says he has a keen desire to preserve open space in San Diego County has offered to privately loan $1.8 million so 1,500 acres of pristine wilderness near Ramona can be included in plans for a regional park that will wind 43 miles from Del Mar to the foothills of Julian.

If the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, had not come forward, the property would probably have ended up in the hands of private developers, officials of the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Open Space Park say.

The land is owned by a private individual who intended to develop it with estate-size residences, but who became smitten with the beauty of the woodlands and decided instead to try to preserve it as open space.

The problem was that the owner, who also wishes to remain anonymous, needed a quick, $1.8-million loan to pay a mortgage balloon payment or risk losing the property in foreclosure. Although several government agencies said they were interested in eventually acquiring the land for a park or wilderness area, they couldn’t move quickly enough to save the land.

Enter a San Diego man who heard of the public plea for assistance.

“He said he read the article (in The Times on Dec. 30) and asked if we had gotten anyone to help yet,” said Susan Carter, project manager for the park agency. “I said, ‘Not yet,’ and he said, ‘Well, I can help.’ ”

Carter put him in contact with the Trust for Public Land, a private, nonprofit agency that helps public agencies acquire private land for parks and open space.

Rosemary Woodlock, Southern California project manager for the trust, said the man’s altruism is extraordinary.

“What’s absolutely fantastic about him is that he’s making a spontaneous offer in the public interest,” Woodlock said. “That’s something we rarely find in Southern California. Very few wealthy individuals in Southern California are interested in preserving land. They’re usually more interested in destroying it.”

The benefactor, however, downplayed his contribution.

“I deplore what’s going on in this county,” he said. “Unbridled growth is the death knell for this area. But it’s very hard for private citizens to know exactly how they can help.”

His family offered similar financial aid for the acquisition of land in the Midwest, from where he moved, so he knew he might be able to lend a hand--and a loan--here as well.

“It’s not that hard to help,” he said. “All you need to have is decent bank credit and public spirit. I moved here 12 years ago, and I now consider myself a citizen of this area. I’m very well to do and I saw how I could help without being personally put at risk.”

Woodlock said her group is negotiating with the current landowner to either purchase the land outright or to acquire the option for it, and will use the benefactor’s loan toward the down payment. The trust, in turn, plans to sell the land to a government agency and repay the benefactor’s loan. The government agency would in turn offer the property to the San Dieguito regional park, for use as open space, a wilderness preserve or campgrounds.

The land is in an area known as Boden Canyon, north of Ramona and west of Pamo Valley. The benefactor said he was “blown away” by the area’s beauty when he was taken there by the park agency’s Carter.

“It’s a spectacular place for people to come for a park, or for city kids to get out and smell the air and see the wildlife,” he said. “And it would have been a tragedy if it couldn’t be saved. This park plan is a wonderful thing; it’s our heritage, being passed on to future generations.”

The benefactor said the fact that he studied urban planning and civic management in college also made him sensitive to the need for public lands. “That wasn’t my career,” he said, “but it made me conversant and aware of these issues.”

Park officials have said the Boden Canyon property is perhaps the most pristine and naturally beautiful of all the land coveted for park use, given the riparian stands of oaks and the abundance of wildlife.

“When he visited the land,” Carter said, “the one thing that seemed to strike him most was the silence. It was absolutely quiet out there.”

The San Dieguito park agency is a joint-powers authority established last year by the county and city of San Diego and the cities of Solana Beach, Del Mar, Escondido and Poway to establish the 43-mile-long open-space park along the San Dieguito River from Del Mar to Lake Hodges, and eastward through the San Pasqual Valley and the Santa Ysabel Creek to the Volcan Mountains near Julian. Eventually, planners hope the swath of land will be available to hikers, equestrians, campers and day users.