Interior Secretary Enters Land-Swap Dispute : Jordan Ranch: National Park Service officials say the agency is still neutral on the exchange involving property owned by Bob Hope.

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. has stepped into the fray over the proposal to exchange federal parkland for adjacent property owned by entertainer Bob Hope in eastern Ventura County, calling it “an innovative partnership I find personally attractive.”

Lujan’s comments, included in a letter to Gov. Pete Wilson, signal an apparent departure from the neutral stance on the issue taken by the National Park Service, an agency within the Department of the Interior.

However, David Gackenbach, superintendent of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area, said that Lujan was expressing a personal opinion in the March 6 letter and that the Park Service still is taking no position on the proposed land exchange.

Lujan said the proposal to exchange 59 acres of federal property in the Agoura Hills area for 863 acres of Hope’s 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch is “a model of intergovernmental cooperation as well as public-private partnerships.”

Copies of the letter were provided to The Times as well as to Simi Valley officials who met with National Park Service Director James M. Ridenour here Tuesday.

Ridenour told Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and other city officials that “philosophically, he’s supportive of that partnership, the proposal,” said George J. Berklacy, a Park Service spokesman. He added that Ridenour described the swap as “a creative venture in which the state and local governments work out a partnership.”

The Park Service is reviewing public comments before preparing an environmental impact report on the exchange.

In the letter, Lujan did not ask Wilson to throw his weight behind the project or to become personally involved, Berklacy said. Rather, Lujan requested that the governor designate an appropriate staff member of the California Natural Resources Agency to act as liaison with the Interior Department.

Wilson did not immediately respond to the interior secretary’s request, but he already has involved himself in the controversy. Last week, he met with officials of Ventura County, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and an attorney for Hope to urge a quick resolution to the land-swap deal.

The big-stakes proposal has divided local environmentalists--some of whom see it as a chance to turn thousands of acres of privately owned property into parkland and others who say it would create a disastrous precedent if the Park Service traded land to pave the way for development.

Ron Stark, a member of the Oak Park Advisory Council, which opposes the Jordan Ranch project, said Lujan and Wilson should not be interfering in a local issue.

Stark said it is up to the developer, not state and national officials, to convince county residents that the project is mutually beneficial.

“We’re the people that are going to have to live with the project,” said Stark, whose group advises the supervisors. “If they show us we can live with it, we will help them develop it. If not, we’ll fight them tooth and nail.”

County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, elected on a slow-growth platform that included opposition to the Jordan Ranch development, said Tuesday that Lujan’s interest has complicated the land-swap matter, which she said should be decided solely by the Board of Supervisors.

VanderKolk attended the meeting in Sacramento last week along with Supervisor Vicky Howard and Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrative officer.

Franz Wisner, a spokesman for the governor, said Wilson agrees that the matter should be decided locally and that he was not trying to pressure county officials in the meeting last week. Wilson tentatively endorsed the exchange last June when he was a U.S. senator.

“Obviously, the concerns of the local citizens are paramount, and the governor will do everything possible to facilitate an agreement that will supported by all parties,” Wisner said.

In the letter, Lujan touted the proposal’s possible benefits. “If undertaken,” he wrote, “the exchange holds the potential of acquiring significant acreage for conservation/recreation purposes not only for the NPS, but also for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy,” a state agency that acquires land for the Santa Monica Mountains park.

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

The Park Service would swap 59 acres of Cheeseboro Canyon in a section of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area--land that Hope and his development company need for the access road--for 864 acres of the Jordan Ranch in the hills south of Simi Valley.

Hope has 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.

Hope’s offer is contingent upon approval of both the land exchange and the Jordan Ranch development by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. The board must approve a zoning change to allow residential development on the Jordan Ranch property.

Mary Wiesbrock, director of the environmental group Save Open Space, agreed with Stark that the Jordan Ranch issue must be decided locally.

Wilson and Lujan are attempting to force local officials to approve a “back-room deal,” she suggested.

Wiesbrock said her group has requested a meeting with the governor because members feel that he has not been properly informed about how the Jordan Ranch project would affect the environment and on the precedent it would set.

If the project is approved, she said, “it will be open season on national parklands by developers.”

Miller reported from Washington and Martin from Ventura. Times staff writer Carlos V. Lozano in Simi Valley contributed to this story.