SIMI HILLS : Ahmanson Deadline Gets Extension From Park Service

The National Park Service has extended its deadline for negotiating the $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch deal to next Wednesday after receiving a hand-delivered guarantee that it would not lose any more money because of the protracted negotiations.

The park service, which already has lost about $340,000 in interest on the $19.5 million it set aside to buy thousands of acres of parkland as part of the Ahmanson deal, on Friday extended its original March 31 deadline through April 7, regional Superintendent David Gackenbach said.

The park service agreed to leave its money in a non-interest-bearing escrow account because a state park agency, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, agreed to cover the federal agency’s $5,000-a-day loss, Gackenbach said.

“Yeah, this does it until Wednesday,” Gackenbach said.

But if the developers of the Ahmanson Ranch housing project have not agreed to reimburse the conservancy for that money by midweek and made substantial progress toward closing escrow, Gackenbach said he will withdraw federal funds from the deal.

Regardless of guarantees, however, Gackenbach said April 14 would be his new final deadline for closing escrow.

Approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in December, the Ahmanson Ranch project would create a mini-city of 8,600 residents in the rolling Simi Hills, while turning over nearly 10,000 acres of mountain land to state and federal park agencies.

The deal has been delayed because Ahmanson Land Co., entertainer Bob Hope and Hope’s development partner have not been able to agree on how to split up profits from the project. Hope owns 7,000 of the 10,000 acres that would become parkland.

The National Park Service holds the linchpin for the deal, because it is providing $19.5 million of the $29.5 million that Hope will get from park agencies for his three ranches.