Hope Rejects Deal, Imperils Ahmanson Plan

Bob Hope has rejected a last-minute offer of $19.5 million from parks officials to purchase two of the entertainer’s ranches, imperiling a complex deal that would preserve thousands of mountain acres as open space but also create a controversial “mini-city” just west of the San Fernando Valley.

If Hope does not agree to sell the ranches by Wednesday under an earlier agreement, federal and state parks officials said a plan to dedicate the land as a mountain park and allow development of 3,050 homes on nearby Ahmanson Ranch will collapse.

Although the prospect of losing the Ahmanson development and its tax revenues dismayed officials in Ventura County, where the “mini-city” would be built, the news delighted opponents in Los Angeles County. Valley-based critics have long fought the Ahmanson project, which would be located just over the county line west of Woodland Hills, saying it would channel rivers of traffic through the West Valley and urbanize what is now nearby open land.

The collapse of the complicated arrangement “would postpone any development out there and that’s favorable to me and the people I represent,” responded Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, whose district covers the southwestern Valley. At Picus’ direction, the city of Los Angeles became one of nine parties now suing to block the Ahmanson project on environmental grounds.

Ventura County supervisors last December had approved the complicated arrangement to allow Ahmanson Land Co. to develop a large housing and commercial center with government buildings and two golf courses on its ranch in the Simi Hills. The deal called for Hope to receive $19.5 million and a share of profits in the Ahmanson project in exchange for his Jordan and Runkle ranches and Corral Canyon in Malibu, most of which would wind up in the hands of federal and state park agencies.

Hope had accepted the deal but recently balked at closing escrow to complete the sale. The entertainer apparently is concerned that he may not see any profits from the Ahmanson development for several years due to lawsuits and other threats to the project, Ahmanson and parks officials said.

In an effort to salvage part of the deal by securing some open space, frustrated parks officials sweetened the offer this week by proposing to pay Hope the full $19.5 million for just two of the properties, totaling 2,650 acres--Jordan Ranch and Corral Canyon.

Under that deal, Hope would retain Runkle Ranch, a craggy 4,369-acre stretch of rugged cliffs north of the Simi Valley Freeway, if the Ahmanson development did not move forward.

However, officials of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint federal-state agency, said Friday that Hope had rejected the new offer. Their focus now shifts to the original package that Hope had agreed to in principle in December, but not completed.

If the entertainer does not close escrow by March 31, the National Park Service will withdraw the $19.5 million it has held for months in readiness to complete the purchases and will instead try to buy other properties with the money, including Paramount Ranch in Agoura and part of Broom Ranch in Newbury Park.

Without federal funds to purchase Hope’s 7,037 acres as open space, the entire deal would collapse because Ventura County supervisors will not allow Ahmanson to begin construction unless the Hope properties are in public hands.

Hope’s properties sweep from rough-hewn rocky cliffs to grassy meadows now dotted with wildflowers. The rolling hills and breathtaking vistas of Jordan Ranch are considered among the most beautiful in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Mountain lions, bobcats, deer and dozens of other animals roam across the Santa Monica range through the ranch’s China Flat, which overlooks tiers of snow-capped mountains.

The complex deal was to have closed by Jan. 15. But it has stalled for several reasons.

Hope’s attorney, Payson Wolff, has been ill and has spent some time in the hospital over the past few weeks. Wolff was back in his office Friday, but did not return phone calls.

Further complicating negotiations, nine lawsuits have been filed against the Ahmanson development.

“We understand loud and clear that there is a deadline, and we are doing everything we can to respect it,” said Allen Camp, an Ahmanson attorney. “Everybody truly wants this deal to happen.”

“I’m utterly dismayed,” said Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, one of the deal’s most enthusiastic boosters. “It’s going to be a real shame if this all falls through.”

An opposite viewpoint came from Linda Rice, president of the West Hills Neighborhood Assn., an opponent of the project. “I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if it all falls apart,” Rice said.

Woodland Hills homeowner activist Robert Gross--on leave from the presidency of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, one of the parties suing to halt the Ahmanson project--predicted that if the current deal unravels it will be years before anyone tries again to develop the property.

After all the controversy surrounding it, “you’d have to be a fool to invest in this property and go into that lion’s den again,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see it developed in our lifetime.”

West Valley residents have been concerned that Victory Boulevard would be flooded with more than 20,000 new auto trips daily if it were linked, as proposed, to the Ahmanson project.

The extra traffic would be generated by residents, the Ahmanson Ranch shopping center and by commuters using Victory Boulevard as a detour around the congested Ventura Freeway.

To minimize such impacts, Picus proposed installing gates on Victory Boulevard that would prevent its use by through traffic, forcing Ahmanson development traffic onto the freeway.

But attorney Rosemary Woodlock, who represents several homeowner and environmental groups with lawsuits against the Ahmanson deal, said the collapse of the negotiations with Hope may not, in fact, be a blessing.

“We don’t think it’s great news because we wanted to see the parkland saved,” Woodlock said.

“I think another project may still be very much alive,” said Woodlock, who speculated that Ahmanson may now try to revive previous plans to build 1,800 to 2,300 units on the site--without any parkland component.

Other environmentalists also said they would be thrilled to see the deal dissolve and the Ahmanson project fade away, but they now fear Hope could attempt to sell his land to other developers--or, in the case of sprawling Runkle Ranch, to Los Angeles County for a landfill.

The entertainer has long dreamed of building a luxury community and tournament golf course on oak-studded Jordan Ranch.

“Bob Hope might just decide, ‘To heck with you all, I’ll take this property with me to the grave,’ ” said David Gackenbach, regional superintendent for the National Park Service, who set the March 31 deadline.

On the other hand, if Hope maintains the land as undeveloped open space, environmentalists would achieve their goals of keeping the rugged terrain free of buildings while still blocking development on the Ahmanson Ranch.

Regardless of what happens with the rest of the deal, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has already bought one key portion of the wildlife corridor, a 403-acre tract in Liberty Canyon.

The conservancy purchased the land for $10 million from Potomac Investment Associates, a developer that has been trying to build on Hope’s property for years. The conservancy will retain title even if the Ahmanson deal unravels.