Bob Hope Agrees to Huge Parkland Deal : Development: The plan to combine two housing projects means 10,000 acres would be set aside as open space. Supervisors must still approve the proposal.

Entertainer Bob Hope agreed Thursday to a complex deal that would combine two giant housing projects near Simi Valley and turn more than 10,000 acres of mountain property into public parkland.

The agreement represents the largest single addition of state parkland in decades, increasing by 16% state and federal park holdings in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills.

“The additional land includes some of the most beautiful--and most accessible--areas in the Santa Monica Mountains,” Gov. Pete Wilson said in a statement announcing the deal.

“In preserving these open spaces, Bob Hope is making a special gift to all Californians,” said the governor, whose intervention in March helped revive discussions between developers and Ventura County officials.

The signature of Hope, who agreed to sell 7,363 acres for a below-market $29.5 million, seals an agreement tentatively reached three weeks ago between a developer working with Hope and the Ahmanson Land Co. The Ahmanson company will donate another 3,025 acres as parkland.

The deal is contingent on approval by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. But most supervisors have expressed support for the projects if they are consolidated on the Ahmanson Ranch in the Simi Hills, as now proposed.

“I feel nothing but positive vibes about this from the rest of the board,” said Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, who suggested a consolidated project to the developers in August, touching off secret negotiations.

Wilson, in his news release, did not mention VanderKolk, though he praised Supervisor John K. Flynn and Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton for supporting the deal. Principals in the negotiations, however, said VanderKolk’s support was essential in making the deal work.

“The last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place with Bob Hope,” said Donald Brackenbush, president of Ahmanson Land Co. “But I’ve got to give Maria and her staff a lot of credit. They did a magnificent job of putting this together.”

Neither Hope nor his attorney, Payson Wolff, could be reached for comment Thursday.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said Hope is being enormously generous--selling his land for less than one-third of the $12,000 to $15,000 per acre park agencies are paying for parcels nearby. In all, park agencies will get parklands worth between $120 million and $150 million, officials have said.

“I really think this is the beginning of turning the Los Angeles Basin from a ‘Blade Runner’ future to a more pastoral one,” said Edmiston, whose state conservancy is a principal benefactor of the deal.

The $29.5 million to be paid to Hope will come from state bonds and federal appropriations, park officials said.

But not everyone is happy with the deal. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, whose San Fernando Valley district is across the county line from the consolidated Ahmanson Ranch project, has said she will try to block it because of traffic concerns.

And Agoura Hills-based Save Open Space also opposes the joint project. It would violate county policies that prohibit projects unless they are next to existing cities, the group says.

“We’re pleased and thrilled” that Hope has agreed to sell his mountain holdings, said Mary Wiesbrock of Save Open Space. But she said the huge project on the Ahmanson Ranch raises serious concerns about traffic and air quality.

Her group hopes to see the Ahmanson property acquired as open space along with Hope’s lands, she said.

But the project has received widespread support from both public officials and environmentalists because it would preserve all of Hope’s 2,300-acre Jordan Ranch near Agoura Hills as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. And it would fill in critical gaps in the regional wildlife corridor.

The deal would put into public ownership 10,388 acres on five separate parcels in the Santa Monica Mountains, Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains.

Under the consolidated plan, Hope would sell to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state parks agency, 347 acres in Liberty Canyon in Calabasas, the 339-acre Corral Canyon in Malibu, the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch and the 4,369-acre Runkle Ranch just north of the Simi Valley Freeway at the Los Angeles County line.

The key change in the new plan is that 750 houses and a PGA golf course planned for Hope’s Jordan Ranch would be incorporated instead into the Ahmanson project.

The Ahmanson company would build another 1,850 houses and a town center with 400,000 square feet of offices and stores, as previously planned.

Ahmanson would give 3,025 acres of its 5,477-acre ranch to the National Park Service.

Although developers agreed to a combined project in mid-October, key sticking points remained in negotiations between Hope and his developer, Potomac Investment Associates--including whether the Professional Golfers’ Assn. Tour and Hope would approve the new proposal.

Under the previous proposal, Jordan Ranch would have been an enclave for the rich--luxury homes surrounding one of only 15 golf courses in the nation owned by the PGA Tour. It would have been a tournament site on the senior tour, and a Bob Hope golf museum would have been located there.

The new plan also calls for a PGA course named after Hope, though negotiations with the PGA are not complete, said Potomac spokesman Fred Maas.

Wolff has said the 88-year-old comedian originally was “upset by the notion that what he envisioned as a beautiful, great golf course on the southern part of the Jordan Ranch couldn’t come about.”

Ahmanson / Jordan Land Deal

The deal would put into public ownership more than 10,000 acres of mountain property in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. In return, parks agencies would pay $29.5 million to entertainer Bob Hope for most of the property. Moreover, two development firms--Potomac Investment Associates and Ahmanson Land Co.--would get approval to build two golf courses and 2,600 homes on the Ahmanson Ranch in eastern Ventura County.

1. Runkle Ranch--4,369 acres owned by Hope in Santa Susana Mountains. Includes part of Blind Canyon, under consideration by L.A. County Sanitation District as landfill. Property already transferred to Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, subject to resolution of dispute over future of Jordan Ranch.

2. Jordan Ranch--2,308 acres owned by Hope. Under the plan, Potomac Investment would abandon its proposal to build homes and a golf course on Jordan Ranch, relocating the project to Ahmanson Ranch. Jordan Ranch would be part of $29.5-million sale of Hope properties and would become part of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

3. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area--Part of national park system. Potomac and Hope had proposed acquiring 59 acres of federal parkland in Cheeseboro Canyon for access road to serve Jordan Ranch development. Under the deal, Jordan Ranch project would be abandoned and no federal land would be transferred.

4. Liberty Canyon--Hope property where Potomac Investment Associates has planned another large development. Under new proposal, project would be scaled back and parks agencies would acquire about 347 acres of Liberty Canyon as part of $29.5-million buyout of Hope. Tract is considered key to protecting a wildlife corridor that permits movement of deer, bobcats and other large mammals between Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills.

5. Corral Canyon--Hope property where developers sought to build homes and a golf course and country club. Under the deal, the 339 acres would be transferred to parks agencies as part of $29.5-million sale.

6. Ahmanson Ranch Parkland--About 3,025 acres would be deeded to parks agencies. In return, Ahmanson Land Co. and Potomac Investment would get approval from Ventura County to develop a huge residential and golf course project.

7. Combined Project Area--Site of more than 2,600 homes and two golf courses to be built in a joint venture between Ahmanson and Potomac.