Opponents of Land Deal File Suit Against Parks Agency : Ahmanson Ranch: At issue is a Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy decision to authorize payment of $10 million to a firm involved in the project.

An environmental group opposed to the giant Ahmanson Ranch housing project near Agoura Hills filed a lawsuit Tuesday to prevent a state parks agency from issuing what the suit called “a $10-million loan” to developers for the purchase of parkland.

Save Open Space, an environmental group opposed to large-scale developments in the region, sued the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which purchases and oversees parkland in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains.

“We feel the conservancy doesn’t have the authority to make a loan to a private developer,” said Rosemary Woodlock, an attorney representing Save Open Space.

But Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, said there is no basis for the lawsuit because the money to be paid to Potomac Investment Associates is not a loan.

Instead, he said, the payment is for the acquisition of a specific piece of property owned by entertainer Bob Hope, who is working with Potomac in the complex land deal.

Edmiston said the conservancy will have the option of acquiring either Hope’s land in Liberty Canyon near Agoura Hills or Corral Canyon near Malibu.

“This is flat-out not a loan to developers,” he said. The state attorney general’s office, he said, assured the conservancy that the proposed purchase of land is on firm legal ground.

The conservancy’s board of directors agreed at its Dec. 16 meeting to authorize the payment of $10 million to Potomac, as early as February. The money to Potomac would ultimately go to Hope, who owns more than 7,000 acres of mountain property that would be sold to parks agencies in the deal.

The conservancy decided to make the payment to Potomac after the Ventura County Board of Supervisors commented favorably on the Ahmanson housing project in early December and voted to give it a speedy review.

The supervisors said the project was preferable to two initial proposals by Potomac and the Ahmanson Land Co.

Potomac originally planned to build 750 houses and a PGA golf course on Hope’s Jordan Ranch east of Thousand Oaks, while Ahmanson planned to build 1,850 houses and 400,000 square feet of office and commercial space on the nearby Ahmanson Ranch.

The developers have now proposed to combine the housing projects at a single location on the Ahmanson Ranch. If the 2,600-house development is approved by the Board of Supervisors, Hope has agreed to sell 7,363 acres of his property to state and federal park agencies for $29.5 million. Ahmanson Land Co. would donate another 3,025 acres to park agencies as part of the deal.

In the lawsuit, Save Open Space argues that the $10 million for Potomac violates procedures outlined in the California Environmental Quality Act because it is tied to the Ahmanson housing project.

Save Open Space’s lawsuit also contends that the conservancy overstepped its legal authority by committing funds to Potomac when the environmental review process on the Ahmanson project has yet to be completed.

Moreover, Woodlock said the group is concerned that the remaining $19.5 million needed to acquire all of the proposed parkland will come from a state bond issue that has yet to be approved by the voters.

She said the group is worried that if the bond issue is not approved, the developers will still retain their rights to build.

Ann Rushton, an attorney for the conservancy, called the lawsuit “frivolous.” She echoed Edmiston’s comments that the $10 million payment is separate and apart from the Ahmanson housing project.

She said the $10 million will go toward acquiring Liberty Canyon or Corral Canyon. Once the payment has been made, she said the conservancy will receive a title to the purchased property.

She said the conservancy decided to make the payment because it wants to be sure that even if the Ahmanson housing project falls through, “we still get something.”

But Save Open Space member Siegfried Othmer said that making a payment to Potomac now is simply a way to force the supervisors to approve the housing project. He said the conservancy should wait until the supervisors have made their decision on the Ahmanson development before it parts with any public dollars.

“Now is not the time to be handing out money,” he said.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Woodlock missed a 1:30 p.m. court deadline to request a temporary restraining order against the transfer of money until the lawsuit has been given a full hearing. She said she will be back in court Thursday to ask for the restraining order.