Hope Ranch Developers Try to Settle Suits : Malibu: The firm wants to clear the way for a golf course and housing tract in Corral Canyon. But three suits challenge supervisor approval.

The developers of Bob Hope’s Jordan Ranch property in Ventura County have taken over the option on his Corral Canyon tract in Malibu and will try to settle litigation over approval of a golf course and luxury homes there.

Potomac Investment Associates, which is attempting to develop the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch, recently succeeded Sun Pacific Inc. as holder of the option on Hope’s Corral Canyon land, Potomac Vice President Fred Maas said last week. Maas said Potomac will soon apply for state Coastal Commission approval to build 50 homes on a portion of the 339-acre Malibu property.

To clear the way for the housing development, Potomac is hoping to settle three lawsuits challenging approval last December by Los Angeles County supervisors of a golf course and residential project on the Corral Canyon property. The plaintiffs, including the state attorney general’s office, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, contend the approval violated the county’s land-use plan for the area and state environmental laws because the project would require massive grading of a sensitive stream-side habitat.

The lawsuits had been scheduled for trial this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, but Potomac and the plaintiffs agreed on Aug. 16 to delay the case pending settlement talks.

The fates of Hope’s mountain properties have been linked since April, when Hope offered part of Corral Canyon and a second tract as parkland if his troubled Jordan Ranch project in eastern Ventura County were allowed to go forward.

In April, Hope conditionally withdrew the Corral Canyon plan and turned over to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy the 173 acres of the property on which the golf course was to be built. However, the move, and a related transfer to the conservancy of Hope’s Runkle Ranch property in the Santa Susana Mountains between Simi Valley and Malibu, had a big string attached.

An access road to serve Jordan Ranch can only be built over National Park Service land, and Hope had offered 1,100 acres of Jordan Ranch to the Park Service in exchange for the 59-acre road site.

The offers of parkland from Corral Canyon and Runkle Ranch were an effort to sweeten the deal enough that all the negotiating parties would accept it, and the Jordan Ranch development would be allowed to proceed. If the exchange did not go through, Hope retained the right to take back his Corral Canyon and Runkle Ranch properties.

On Sunday, in a move orchestrated to gain support for a controversial land swap for Hope, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy opened Rocky Peak Park and invited the public to make use of land that has been off-limits for decades.

A ceremony under cloudy skies was not an official dedication, but rather a tentative opening. It is uncertain how long the land, commonly known as Runkle Ranch, will remain open as parkland to the hikers, bicyclists and others who traversed its dusty trails Sunday.

Frank Angel, attorney for the Sierra Club and Corral Canyon Homeowners Assn., plaintiffs in one of the Corral Canyon lawsuits, said his clients have no reason to settle the case without assurances that the 173 acres in Corral Canyon will remain parkland regardless of the outcome of the Jordan Ranch controversy.

Potomac officials said they are willing to discuss that condition. “We want to go ahead and engage in settlement discussions,” said Bob Break, an attorney for Potomac. “Obviously saving Corral Canyon and making that available for public use is the cornerstone of . . .the concern” of those who filed the lawsuits.

The proposal for a PGA golf course and 750 homes on the Jordan Ranch has driven a wedge between environmental activists. Some have opposed the plan because of its impact on the scenic ranch and neighboring Park Service holdings, while others favor it because of the Jordan Ranch, Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon lands that would come into public ownership.

The proposal is under review by officials in Ventura County, where a majority of county supervisors are believed to oppose it.

If the Corral Canyon land gained permanent park status through a settlement there, conservationists would have one less incentive to support the Jordan Ranch proposal and the land exchange that is the linchpin of the project.

However, a settlement would bring Potomac closer to building homes on the part of Corral Canyon not donated to the conservancy.

Maas, the Potomac vice president, said the firm hopes to get Coastal Commission approval for the homes by the end of this year. According to Maas, no further review by the county is needed, since supervisors last December approved the homes along with the golf course.

But rather than wait to open the park until its future is certain, Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, said he wants to make the public aware of the Runkle Ranch property and muster public support that he hopes will make it difficult for politicians to disapprove of the deal.

“We want people to see what they could lose,” he said. “Public opinion will make a difference as to whether this will occur or not.”