Park Advocates Pressure Bob Hope for Land Gift

An impasse has emerged in the decade-old effort to piece together a sprawling national preserve in the Santa Monica Mountains, a stalemate setting proponents of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area against comedian Bob Hope, the largest private property owner in the range.

While environmentalists and park officials are anxious to acquire the comedian’s holdings, Hope has chosen to option most of his 7,400 acres to developers intent on building high-priced housing and golf courses.

Park advocates contend that those developments would blemish their verdant surroundings, and have extensively lobbied the 86-year-old entertainer, philanthropist and political conservative to instead donate or sell his land to the reserve--even though the National Park Service cannot meet his asking price.

The disagreement, which has simmered behind the scenes for years, now threatens to spill over into public view as government agencies begin to consider developers’ plans for Hope’s major holdings inside the 155,000-acre park territory, which stretches from Point Mugu to Griffith Park.

Hope’s attorney said the comedian merely has chosen to exercise his prerogative to sell to the highest bidders, and calls it unfair to single Hope out for pressure. He said other major property owners in the mountains are not being pressured as vigorously as Hope.

“Mr. Hope regards his properties as investments, and he is fully entitled to a fair return on them,” said attorney Payson Wolff, who spoke at the comedian’s behest. “It’s presumptuous for people to say that he should give his land away. . . . If he wants to sell it, more power to him.”

Environmentalists, who have inundated the comedian with calls and letters appealing to his sense of patriotism, counter that more than one man’s property rights are at stake. They say that Hope’s holdings are important enough to make or break the Santa Monica park system.

“Of all the lands you can get in the mountains, Hope has the critical ones,” said Joseph T. Edmiston, director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, one of several agencies that works with the Park Service to identify and acquire public lands. “It’s all-important.”

Found on Hope’s acreage are coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and other animals that would be threatened by development, park officials contend. Failure to obtain Hope’s land also would prevent linking many of the hiking trails and campsites spread out along the oak-studded land.

Topping the park’s wish lists are two prime, picturesque properties owned by Hope: 1,100 acres of rolling meadowland in the Simi Hills section of Ventura County called China Flat, and a 339-acre oceanfront tract in Malibu’s Corral Canyon. Park officials also are interested in Hope’s Jordan Ranch near Agoura Hills and Runkle Ranch below Santa Susana Mountains Park.

Hope, who is said to be worth about $150 million, started acquiring the land in the 1950s when he converted oil profits into real estate. Legend has it that he and his close friend, the late Bing Crosby, once stood atop the China Flat parcel and mused over the possibilities of developing it into a second Bel-Air.

Hope never acted on that fantasy, opting instead to hang onto his increasingly valuable properties. Now the comedian is gradually liquidating in order to realize the profits from his land, said Wolff.

The National Park Service concedes that it has never come close to meeting Hope’s prices. Indeed, as a result of chronic funding shortages, park officials have obtained less than half of the overall property initially targeted for parkland acquisition, and one administrator has labeled the Santa Monica recreation area “an insult to the national park system.”

“I don’t think Bob Hope or anyone else has anything to do with our problems,” said Willis Kriz, chief of the Park Service’s land resources division. “You are looking at overall budget constraints.”

This year’s budget for buying land in the Santa Monicas is $12 million, an increase from $1 million in 1988. The conservancy, a state-funded environmental acquisition group, has another $15 million.

But that’s still small change in Southern California real estate terms. The Jordan Ranch alone has been appraised at $20 million to $30 million, a price tag that has helped explain why environmentalists have appealed to the comedian’s legendary penchant for philanthropy. Hope is well-known for his work on behalf of the USO and other charitable causes.

Time, however, is running out for park adherents. With Hope’s blessing, Potomac Investment Associates is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,152 homes and a tournament-quality golf course on Jordan, which abuts China Flat. Another company, Sun Pacific Inc., hopes to convert Corral Canyon into a resort with a golf course. Both are operating under option agreements that give them the right to buy Hope’s property if they are able to secure approval for their development plans, which must be obtained from county officials in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, respectively, and the state Coastal Commission.

Other Hope properties in the park territory are already being developed. The Currey-Riach Co. recently built 1,200 condominiums and houses on a hilly tract north of Malibu Creek State Park that was purchased from Hope for $13 million. Another developer plans to build 75 homes, an office building and a shopping center on a 195-acre Calabasas ranch just obtained from Hope for $10 million.

“We paid exactly what he wanted, which is the way he likes to do business,” said the developer, Robert E. Zuckerman of Continental Communities. Yet another company, the Anden Group, wants to build 90 homes on another Hope parcel off Las Virgenes Canyon Road.

Wolff said Hope, an avid golfer who owns a golf cart in the shape of his ski-nosed profile, is especially “thrilled” about plans for building golf courses on two of his properties. “Mr. Hope feels that it is a beautiful use of open space,” the attorney said.

“Dealing with a legend definitely makes our job harder,” said National Park Service Supt. David Gackenbach, who manages the Santa Monica park system. “It’s true that it’s his property. . . . But it sure would be nice if he donated at least one parcel.”

Because of the tax benefits involved, parkland bequests are fairly common. As an example, more than a third of the 11,000 acres acquired by the conservancy have been donated, Edmiston said. Hope’s sole land donation in the Santa Monicas came before the national park system was formed, when he gave 360 acres of land to Ventura County. Other well-known donors include Dick Clark and actor Peter Strauss, who bequeathed part of the property for the open-to-the-public Peter Strauss Ranch.

Wolff said additional bequests are not on Hope’s agenda. The comedian has already given a total of 1,500 acres of land in various locales, the attorney said, including the 80 acres that formed the site of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs.

Condemnation is another possible method government agencies have of attaining property. But park officials say they were scared off of that path by the experiences of the Las Virgenes Water Municipal District, which condemned a Hope property nearly a decade ago and wound up facing the comedian in court. In an episode that the comedian’s attorney confirms, Hope shook hands with each of the jurors during the trial. The jury then awarded him exactly what he requested--about $2 million more than the board wanted to pay.

Politicians may also have learned from the water board’s experience. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), a normally outspoken park advocate who authored the legislation creating the Santa Monica Mountains park system, will not discuss Hope’s land. Neither will Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who has acted as a conduit between Hope and park officials.

Margot Feuer, a former state coastal commissioner who now belongs to an environmental group called Save the Mountain Park Coalition, contends that Hope’s resistance to donating or selling his vast holdings to the park can be attributed to avarice.

“No one has a larger ownership of land in the Santa Monicas, and yet has not given up one inch,” Feuer said. “What is it that drives this man?”

Hope’s negotiations with public agencies over the years may help answer that question--and show another side of the comedian’s famous personality. “He wants top dollar for his property and then some,” said one park bureaucrat. Another acknowledges that Hope is an “an absolute master” when it comes to business deals.

Park officials first learned of Hope’s bargaining skills in the early 1970s when he asked the state Department of Recreation and Parks if they wanted to buy the Hope Ranch in Malibu.

The 1,022-acre parcel is now part of Malibu Creek State Park. But state park records show that Hope drove a tough deal. He initially rejected the state’s offer of $4.3 million, saying the property was worth at least $6 million. Hope’s representative appealed the case all the way to then-Gov. Ronald Reagan before agreeing on a sale price of $4.5 million.

Les McCargo, the state recreation department’s chief deputy, said Hope also tried to persuade the state to condemn the property, a designation that gives the seller a longer period to invest pretax profits. The state, however, denied the request, McCargo said.

It was during that same period that Hope made his sole donation to the park system. Conejo Recreation and Park District manager Tex Ward said Hope bequeathed the nature preserve at the request of his department after it was judged to have limited development potential.

Two years later, Congress formed the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area with the goal of preserving open space in the corridor. The courting of Hope started soon after.

“Mr. Hope, you are one of the great examples of the good that the Los Angeles area has given, and continues to give to this nation,” then-park Supt. Robert S. Chandler wrote in a letter that set the tone for other obsequious overtures to come. “As such, your unfailing adherence to excellence and bettering the lot of mankind is exemplary in the United States and abroad. The Santa Monica National Recreation Area . . . is dedicated to similar goals.”

With the elusive Hope still outside the department’s grasp, Daniel R. Kuehn, Chandler’s successor, followed with this 1986 letter: “You probably remember my audacious request that your client Bob Hope donate to the National Park Service his land. . . . What with the golf tournament, the Super Bowl program and his many other activities and obligations (he is indeed an amazing man), I realize he probably has not had time to at all consider my request.”

It wasn’t until 1988, when Ventura County Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer demanded an audience with Hope, that the much-anticipated meeting finally occurred at his Toluca Lake home. Schaefer, who has a vote on the Jordan Ranch development proposal, said she hoped to persuade Hope to sell both China Flat and Jordan Ranch to the Park Service.

Schaefer took Kuehn along to the hourlong meeting, which accomplished as little as the letters. “He was delightful,” Schaefer said. “We talked about the property and the fact that the Park Service had tried to buy (it). He said it would make a beautiful golf course.”

The discussion continues, with the supervisors scheduled to vote on the Jordan plans later this year. The most controversial aspect involves a land swap in which Potomac Investment Associates would turn over the China Flat property to park officials for a site that would be used to build an access road linking Potomac’s development to the Ventura Freeway.

Some park advocates, including Edmiston, favor the deal because it guarantees that China Flat is preserved. Others, such as longtime environmental activist Mary Wiesbrock, argue that the land swap is a needless giveaway that paves the way for overdevelopment of an area that boasts fragrant black sage, yellow-flowering tarweed, mountain mahogany and valley oaks.

“If the Park Service agrees to this, it will be a scandal,” said Wiesbrock, director of Save Our Open Space. “We’re appealing to Mr. Hope to sell the entire property to the park. We would like to see it named the Hope Family Forest. It’s the best legacy he could leave.”

A similar dispute rages over the Corral Canyon site, and appears headed for the courts.

A contingent of Malibu residents and environmentally oriented politicians were outraged when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved plans for construction of a $35-million club, golf course and residential development on the site in December. Especially troubling to the opponents are plans by developer Sun Pacific to move 5 million cubic yards of dirt and fill in an entire canyon.

The proposal still faces state Coastal Commission review. But last month its foes added two lawsuits to its list of hurdles, alleging that the project will ruin the pristine canyon.

In a letter reminiscent of those the park service has addressed to Hope in the past, actor Martin Sheen, Malibu’s honorary mayor, suggested that a more fitting use of the canyon would be to preserve it and name it in Hope’s honor. Sheen’s letter failed to sway the developer, however, and Wolff said it is unlikely to sway Hope.

Hope understands the environmental problems the developments may pose, Wolff said. But he does not feel that it is his responsibility to address them.

“Basically it’s the developer’s problem,” Wolff said. “They are the ones who have to (prove) nature won’t be endangered. Mr. Hope doesn’t have the technical knowledge for that kind of stuff.”

BOB HOPE’S MAJOR PARK-AREA PROPERTIES These properties, which represent the bulk of Bob Hope’s holdings in the Santa Monica Mountains, are at the heart of a dispute between Hope and park advocates.

1. Runkle Ranch: 2,300 acres. Considered a vital link in the wildlife corridor between the Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, its jagged terrain makes development unlikely. The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts is eyeing one of its canyons as a possible landfill site. 2. China Flat: 1,100 acres. A rolling meadowland, it ranks high on the list of properties targeted for acquisition by park advocates. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy hopes to obtain the parcel through a land swap this year. Could be developed if the swap falls through. 3. Jordan Ranch: 1,300 acres. Adjoins China Flat. Potomac Investment Associates has optioned the property and is seeking to build more than 1,000 homes and a golf course. The deal hinges on a land swap that would give China Flat to the park in return for a plot of land where Potomac hopes to build an access road from the development site to the Ventura Freeway. 4. Corral Canyon: 339 acres. Called the “crown jewel” of Hope’s holdings, it overlooks the ocean and includes a running stream. Another top priority of park preservationists, it is optioned to Sun Pacific Inc., which proposes to build a golf course and resort on the land.