Hope Might Sell Parkland to State : Environment: He is considering transferring 5,700 acres of mountain property for below-market value.

Entertainer Bob Hope is considering the transfer of about 5,700 acres of mountain property in Los Angeles and Ventura counties to the state for a below-market $20 million, which would be one of the largest parkland transactions in recent Southern California history, a state official said Wednesday.

Hope, stung by recent criticism of his refusal to negotiate with park agencies on the future of his vast landholdings, was expected to discuss the proposed deal with his attorney as early as today. But so far, he has not made up his mind about the proposal, said Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The board of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a branch of the conservancy, approved the proposal Wednesday night at a meeting in Moorpark in anticipation that Hope might sign it today. “I am optimistic,” Edmiston said. “I think it would be the most important acquisition that has been made, certainly in the last 20 years or so, in the whole Santa Monica Mountains zone.”

Neither Hope nor his attorney Payson Wolff could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Besides transferring most of Hope’s remaining mountain land to the state and federal governments, the proposed agreement would shred plans for a controversial golf course and country club on Hope’s land in Corral Canyon in Malibu, scale back a proposed housing and golf course complex on Hope’s Jordan Ranch holdings in eastern Ventura County next to Agoura, and prevent use of Blind Canyon in the Santa Susana Mountains as a future dump.

At the same time, the deal could reduce legal and environmental obstacles to development of two Hope properties, and resuscitate Hope’s reputation for benevolence and philanthropy.

But it would also turn up the pressure on the National Park Service to approve a controversial land exchange that would facilitate development of Hope’s Jordan Ranch property. Under terms of the proposed agreement, Hope could void the deal and take back his lands if the land swap is not concluded.

During the last two months, the 86-year-old comedian-actor has endured a spate of bad publicity about his huge profits from the sale of mountain lands, and his refusal to consider the sale or gift of remaining land to parks agencies.

After local news reports, the issue received heavy exposure on national TV news and entertainment shows. A small band of demonstrators even marched to Hope’s Toluca Lake home earlier this month.

Edmiston, who began negotiating with Wolff about three weeks ago, said he believed that “the constant barrage of criticism” aimed at Hope was a factor in the talks.

The centerpiece of the proposal is the 4,369-acre Runkle Ranch, straddling the Los Angeles-Ventura County line near the northwestern edge of the San Fernando Valley. The rugged property above Santa Susana Pass includes canyons, spectacular rock formations, and meadows of lupine and morning glories and scurrying quail.

Saved from development, it would continue to function as part of a migratory wildlife corridor that assures biological diversity between animal populations in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains and the Simi Hills, naturalists say.

The property also includes part of Blind Canyon, an immense and precipitous gash in the Santa Susana Mountains under consideration by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts as a future landfill site.

According to one source involved, the Sanitation Districts have offered Hope far more than $20 million for the property. Don Nellor, chief of solid waste planning for the districts, confirmed that the districts were negotiating with Hope, but would not discuss specifics.

Under the proposed agreement, Hope would immediately donate Blind Canyon to the conservancy and sell the rest of Runkle Ranch for $20 million over a four-year period. The money would come from Proposition 117 bond revenues or from other sources if the state ballot measure, also known as the Wildlife Initiative, fails to pass in June.

In another key provision, 200 acres of Hope’s 339-acre Corral Canyon property in Malibu, including wildlife habitat along a year-round stream, would be donated to the Conservancy, and then transferred to the National Park Service for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Hope has optioned the property to developers for construction of a golf course, country club and luxury homes. The golf course and country club would be scrubbed under the deal, although the developers could seek county and state Coastal Commission approval to build homes on the rest of the land.

The agreement would be likely to reduce protests over the original development plan, but it was unclear how it might affect litigation on the issue. Three pending lawsuits, one filed by state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, contend that Los Angeles County supervisors acted illegally last December in approving the golf course and housing proposal.

At Jordan Ranch, the agreement would sweeten an existing offer to mitigate environmental damage from a huge development on the property, which abuts the Cheeseboro Canyon unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Potomac Investment Associates, which has optioned the Jordan Ranch from Hope, previously had proposed to build 1,152 homes and a tournament golf course on the 2,308-acre tract.

The agreement would scale down the request to 750 homes, leaving Ventura County officials free to reduce the number further.

In addition, the China Flat area of Jordan Ranch, a series of oak-studded meadows with panoramic views that the developers were to sell the Conservancy for nearly $2 million, would become a donation instead.

But the linchpin of the project--and the proposed deal with Hope--remains a proposed exchange of federal land in Cheeseboro Canyon for more acreage at Jordan Ranch. Potomac needs the federal land to build an access road to the proposed development.

In return for the 59-acre road site, Potomac has offered to deed the Park Service 864 acres of Jordan Ranch.

The proposed agreement between Hope and the Conservancy requires another 300 acres of Jordan Ranch to become public or private open space, reduces the access road from four to two lanes, and puts the road in an underground tunnel to avoid visual blight and danger to wildlife.

But under terms of the proposal, the whole deal could be voided if the land exchange does not go through.

Hope’s assent to the agreement would probably ease but not eliminate attacks on the proposed land swap. Environmental critics have said the Park Service has no business approving an exchange that would trigger major development.