Path Cleared for State Purchase of 404 Acres Near Agoura Hills : Parklands: The Ahmanson Ranch developer would be paid $10 million for the property.

A judge cleared the way Friday for a state parks agency to pay a developer of the Ahmanson Ranch project near Agoura Hills $10 million for 404 acres of parkland.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen E. O’Neill denied an injunction sought by the environmental group Save Open Space, which claimed that the payment to Potomac Investment Associates and entertainer Bob Hope amounted to an illegal loan.

“This confirms what we’ve been saying all along, that this is a legal and valid transaction,” said Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Director Joseph T. Edmiston, who expected the sale to close within a month.

Save Open Space attorney Rosemary D. Woodlock said the group has not decided whether to appeal the ruling.

The conservancy’s purchase of the Liberty Canyon property is entwined with the proposed 2,600-unit Ahmanson Ranch project. The developers, in exchange for approval of the project, have proposed selling 7,363 acres of open land for $29.5 million and donating more than 3,000 acres to federal and state park agencies.

The $10 million paid to Potomac and Hope for the Liberty Canyon land is part of the larger deal. Although Potomac retains a right to buy back the parcel and may later apply the money instead to the conservancy’s purchase of some of the other parkland, the judge ruled that the payment is not a loan to spur the larger deal.

Although the terms are complicated, Edmiston said the Liberty Canyon deal is merely a creative contract designed to gain some public parkland even if the Ahmanson project falls through.

“This is a stand-alone purchase that is either a very good deal, or is part and parcel of something that is even better if Ventura County approves the Ahmanson project,” Edmiston said.

Save Open Space argued that the various contract contingencies tied the Liberty Canyon deal so closely to the larger transaction that the conservancy should be required to wait for an environmental study of the Ahmanson project before making payment.

“If they’re acquiring a specific parcel of public land, what are all these other provisions for?” Woodlock asked.

The judge rejected the need for an environmental study because the Liberty Canyon deal “does not change the physical world,” but rather would “preserve the land in its natural condition, with no impact on the environment.”

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

The supervisors found it preferable to two initial proposals by Potomac and the Ahmanson Land Co. Potomac had planned to build 750 houses and a PGA golf course on Hope’s Jordan Ranch east of Thousand Oaks, while Ahmanson planned 1,850 houses and 400,000 square feet of office and commercial space on its property.

The developers now propose combining the housing projects on the Ahmanson Ranch. The Liberty Canyon deal will allow the conservancy to come away with at least that property or--for a yet to be determined price--339 acres in Malibu’s Corral Canyon.

Even if the Ahmanson project goes belly up, Edmiston said, “the public will be guaranteed of getting very significant property that otherwise would not have been in the public domain.”