Opposing Sides Argue Hotly Over Proposal for Hope Land

Opponents and supporters of a proposed exchange of 59 acres of national parkland in Agoura for adjacent land owned by entertainer Bob Hope squared off last week at an emotionally charged hearing on a draft environmental report on the controversial deal.

“This is pitiful. It is scandalous,” Mary Wiesbrock, director of the environmental group Save Open Space, said of the exchange. “Our national parkland is sacred. Our national parkland is forever.”

Wiesbrock said the report was inadequate because it did not address the effects of a proposed development tied to the land swap.

But John Otter, a member of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Santa Susana Mountains, said his group strongly supported the exchange.

“We’re not giving away Yellowstone Park,” he said. “This is 59 acres.”

Wiesbrock and Otter were among more than 250 people who attended a public hearing on the environmental report Wednesday night at Agoura High School. Although the report by the National Park Service was released in October, this was the first public hearing on it.

The environmental document neither endorses nor opposes the land swap, which would provide an access road to a housing project and tournament golf course planned for Hope’s Jordan Ranch in eastern Ventura County. The housing project and golf course would be developed by Potomac Investment Associates, which has an option to purchase the Jordan Ranch property.

Under the land-exchange proposal, the National Park Service would swap 59 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area--land it needs for the access road--for 864 acres of the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch.

The document says that if the land exchange takes place and the access road is built, the 59-acre tract would no longer be available for recreational use. However, the report also says the deal offers possible benefits to the Park Service and other public agencies.

The benefits include Hope’s offer to sell and donate another 4,836 acres in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains to park agencies for a below-market price of $10 million. The offer is contingent upon the approval of both the land exchange and the Jordan development.

Opponents of the land swap criticized the environmental report for not including what effects the development would have on the surrounding area. They said they fear that the access road would promote more growth.

“We’ve come to a real sad situation when you have to fight the National Park Service” to stop development, Wiesbrock said. If the land swap is approved, she said, it would set a dangerous precedent by opening the doors to development in all national parklands.

Some conservationists, however, say the Hope deal provides a rare opportunity for the Park Service to acquire land that it otherwise would be unable to buy because of a shortage of public funds.

“We can’t have it all,” said Jan Hinkston, a member of the Santa Susana Parks Assn. “There just isn’t enough money. I wish there was. I wish we could get it all.”

Wiesbrock also criticized Potomac officials for buying dinner for supporters of the swap at an Agoura restaurant before Wednesday’s meeting. She said that was done to get Jordan supporters to attend the hearing.

“That’s nonsense,” said Fred Maas, vice president of Potomac. Maas said Potomac bought a barbecue dinner for 20 to 30 people who have supported the exchange and the Jordan development to show its appreciation.

He said the dinner was not intended to get people to go to the hearing.

Testimony at the hearing was just about evenly divided between supporters and opponents of the land exchange.

William Webb, a deputy superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said the agency will take a position on the proposed land exchange when the final environmental report is issued, up to a year from now.

But the federal decision on the land exchange may be moot because four of five Ventura County supervisors have repeatedly said they are opposed to the Jordan Ranch development.

As a result, Hope has turned to the city of Simi Valley to annex Jordan Ranch. The city, which has supported the annexation in the past, is conducting a study of a General Plan amendment to determine if it would be feasible. But even Potomac officials now say that this is a long-shot effort.

“Jordan Ranch is very much in jeopardy,” Maas said. “But we feel that this is such an extraordinary opportunity for everybody involved--and because we have invested so much time into this--that we all need to work together to try and come up with some resolutions and make this happen.”