Putting Price on Ranch

Reports on the Jordan Ranch/Bob Hope land swap repeatedly indicate the $10 million being offered for Runkle Ranch is “below market value.” The proponents of the swap have represented $10 million as being less than the ranch is worth and the press, like a bunch of parrots, has repeated this unfounded assertion as though it were the gospel truth.

When Runkle Ranch was originally brought into the deal, its $20-million price tag was represented to be “below market value.” The rationale offered was that the sanitation district had offered Hope $30 million for the property and intended to use it as a landfill.

When the fact became known that the sanitation district had only been negotiating to purchase an option on the ranch while it “explored the possibility of its use as a landfill” and at the same time it became pretty obvious that the Ventura County Supervisors were not likely to provide access to any such dump, the price magically shrank to $10 million. Yet it is still represented as a bargain. Is it in fact a bargain?

That awesomely beautiful pile of rock is probably as close to a builder’s worst nightmare as it is possible to get. Every building pad, every foundation, every underground pipe trench, every road would have to be blasted out of the solid rock. The kicker is that only about 30 homes could be built there since its zoning is the most restrictive in Ventura County.

Little wonder that in the many years Hope has tried to sell the property he has found no takers. My suspicion is that $10 million is more than the property is worth.

JOHN PERRY

Agoura Hills