THOUSAND OAKS : Conservancy Wants Failed S&L; Property

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is negotiating to acquire 231 acres in Thousand Oaks from a federal agency in charge of disposing of assets of failed savings and loans.

Spokeswoman Julie Zeidner said conservancy board members decided Monday to ask the Resolution Trust Corp. to donate the land formerly owned by the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn.

The conservancy, which oversees more than 17,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, hopes to preserve the rolling, hillside property as a park, Zeidner said.

The T-shaped parcel south of the Ventura Freeway was formerly owned by Linfin Corp., the development arm of Lincoln Savings, until it was taken over by the RTC.

As recently as 1989, it had been slated for development into a 45-residence housing tract, Zeidner said.

The conservancy is also in the process of acquiring the 314-acre Paramount Ranch in Agoura from the Union Federal Savings Bank for $17.6 million, Zeidner said. The agency has no money available to purchase the property in Thousand Oaks.

But RTC spokesman Kevin Shields said it is unlikely that the agency would donate the land if there are potential buyers.

“It doesn’t make sense to give property away if we can sell it,” Shields said.

By law, the property must first be offered to public agencies, but after 90 days, the RTC is entitled to sell the property to private companies, he said. The RTC has received at least one offer of more than $5 million from another government agency since the bidding process opened Aug. 27.