Wilson Adds Support in Hope Land Trade : Growth: Ventura County officials are surprised at backing for turning over property in swap for road.

Support by Gov. Pete Wilson and Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. for a controversial land swap that would allow entertainer Bob Hope to develop part of a scenic ranch in Ventura County has surprised local officials--and steeled their resolve to withstand what they see as outside pressure to influence their decision on a local issue.

Wilson invited Ventura County officials and Hope’s development team to Sacramento to try to save the faltering land-swap deal, which backers have described as one of the most significant parkland transactions in recent Southern California history.

At the March 6 meeting, Wilson also revealed that Lujan--in a letter faxed from Washington to Sacramento that morning--had declared the swap personally attractive to him.

But four of the five Ventura County supervisors, who will decide this year whether Hope can develop his Jordan Ranch, say that they still have grave concerns about building 750 houses and a golf course in the rolling, oak-studded hills south of Simi Valley.

The supervisors say that they were surprised at the intervention from top state and federal officials on behalf of the land swap, which would turn over 5,700 acres of Hope’s property to park agencies while giving Hope’s developers 59 acres of federal parkland needed for a road into the housing project.

Now, said Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, “I wouldn’t be surprised if President Bush ends up taking a position. Bob Hope is a big Republican supporter. . . . He knows Pete Wilson and he knows George Bush, and this is probably the utmost issue on Bob Hope’s mind. I’m sure he’s mentioned it to them.”

Neither Hope’s spokesman nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Peter Kyros, a partner of Potomac Investment Associates, the Jordan Ranch development company, said no one involved in the project asked Wilson or Lujan to intervene.

“I think all this is an honest genesis on behalf of everyone who has watched this process for three years to see if something sensible can be worked out,” Kyros said.

Richard P. Sybert, director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Research, said Wilson’s interest in Jordan Ranch has nothing to do with Hope’s longtime support of Republican politicians or his assistance in the governor’s campaign last fall.

Sybert said the Jordan Ranch issue is important to the governor not because of Hope’s politics, but because the land swap “is potentially something good for California. This would affect the recreational activities for millions of Southern Californians.”

“People say, ‘Why now?’ The clear implication is that somebody called up,” Sybert added, referring to Wilson’s interest. “And that’s not the case.”

When Wilson stepped into the debate over Jordan Ranch two weeks ago, he told a group of city, county, state and federal officials and Hope’s development team that the land swap is a state and national issue, not only a local one.

“No one is being strong-armed here, but I do want to make it clear to you that there is a great interest . . . on the part of people who are not immediate parties to this issue,” Wilson said.

At the same time, the governor’s staff produced a letter in which Lujan said he found the land-swap proposal to be potentially “a model of intergovernmental cooperation as well as public-private partnerships.”

Because the interior secretary’s letter was dated March 6, the same day as Wilson’s meeting, VanderKolk and other project opponents have speculated that there was a coordinated effort by Hope’s allies to save the Jordan deal. The project has been in jeopardy since the California Coastal Commission rejected a small but profitable part of it in December, finding that construction of 26 luxury homes on Hope land in Malibu was too destructive to the environment.

But Sybert said he made no effort to coordinate the meeting with the release of Lujan’s letter. “So far as I know, this was not a coordinated full-court press by the feds and the state,” he said.

Sybert said he did not tell Lujan or the National Park Service’s Washington office about Wilson’s meeting. Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for Lujan, said the secretary heard about the meeting from officials at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, in which Hope’s ranch is located.

Two weeks before the Wilson meeting, Lujan directed that a letter be written to the governor informing him of Lujan’s support for the land swap, Goldstein said. And when Lujan assistants heard about the Wilson meeting, they faxed the letter to the governor instead of mailing it, Goldstein said.

Lujan has not talked to the governor about Jordan Ranch, Goldstein said. Nor has the secretary spoken with Bob Hope or President Bush about the project, the spokesman said.

“The difference is not that Bob Hope is involved in this project,” Goldstein said. “The difference is that because of its size, it has attracted a lot more attention than normal.”

If the deal is approved, the park service would swap 59 acres of Cheeseboro Canyon--land Hope needs for an access road--for 864 acres of the ranch. Hope has also offered to sell or donate an additional 4,836 acres in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains for a below-market price of $10 million. All told, about 5,700 of Hope’s 7,400 acres of land in the area would be placed in public ownership.

Hope’s offer is contingent upon approval of both the land exchange by the park service and the Jordan Ranch development by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. Environmental studies of each are being conducted.

Lujan and Wilson have said that although they hope that the land swap can be saved, it is strictly a local decision on how much development should be allowed at Jordan Ranch.

“My role is to keep the parties talking to see if something can be worked out,” Sybert said.

Wilson’s meeting apparently did not help Hope’s chances of building at his ranch.

“I don’t think that because you are the governor or the interior secretary your opinion ought to take on any special moment,” Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said. “The project absolutely breaks every planning guideline we have in the County of Ventura. You name it, and it doesn’t work.”