Governor Steps Into Hope Fray : Jordan Ranch: Wilson calls a meeting of parties involved in the exchange of parkland for entertainer’s land. No decisions are made.

Gov. Pete Wilson has stepped into the controversial proposal to exchange 59 acres of federal parkland in the Agoura Hills area for the adjacent Jordan Ranch land owned by entertainer Bob Hope.

Wilson met Wednesday with officials from Ventura County, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and an attorney for Hope to urge a quick resolution to the land-swap issue. The noon meeting took place in the governor’s office at his request, because he felt that there were state and national interests involved, officials said.

However, Wilson was only present for a few minutes at the start of the two-hour meeting, participants said.

The issues were aired, but no decisions were made, participants said.

A Wilson spokesman, James Lee, said the governor told those attending the meeting that “he hoped that this face-to-face meeting will facilitate some compromise so that all parties can be happy.”

Among those who participated were Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy; David Gackenbach, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area; Payson Wolff, Hope’s attorney, and officials of Potomac Investment Associates, which has an option to purchase the Hope property and develop it.

Among the Ventura County officials present were Supervisors Maria VanderKolk and Vicky Howard, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg, Thousand Oaks Councilman Alex Fiore, Simi Valley Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell and Agoura Mayor Louise Rushoff.

VanderKolk and Rushoff said the meeting was constructive in that it provided an opportunity for all to express their concerns. But both said they made it clear that the land exchange and the housing development it is tied to is a local issue that must be decided by local officials.

The land swap would provide an access road to a 750-home development and tournament golf course planned for Hope’s Jordan Ranch property.

Under the land exchange proposal, the National Park Service would swap 59 acres of Cheeseboro Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area of Agoura Hills--land Potomac Investments needs for the access road--for 864 acres of the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch across the border in Ventura County. Hope has also offered to sell and donate an additional 4,836 acres in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains for a below-market price of $10 million.

The offer is contingent upon approval of both the land exchange and the Jordan development, which is currently pending before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

“Clearly, this was an effort to try and get moving toward a mutually beneficial deal for everybody,” Richard P. Sybert, director of the governor’s office of planning and research, said of Wednesday’s meeting.

Although Wilson expressed his “thanks for Mr. Hope’s generous offer,” Sybert said that did not constitute an endorsement of the land exchange.

“He didn’t say that the opportunity should be seized, nor did he say that it shouldn’t,” Sybert said. “He expressed concern that this was an environmentally sensitive development for Ventura County. He just feels that the region, the state and the nation--because it involves national parkland--have interests in the matter.”