AHMANSON RANCH : Deadline Eased for Project Negotiators

Partners in the $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch development planned for eastern Ventura County apparently failed to reach a final agreement Friday, but the National Park Service said it will give negotiators until the middle of next week to close the deal.

The park service, which has set aside $19.5 million to buy thousands of acres of parkland as part of the Ahmanson deal, had been pushing for an end to the protracted negotiations this week.

David Gackenbach, regional superintendent of the park service, threatened to withdraw the park agency’s money from escrow by Monday if he had not heard by late Friday that the deal was close to completion.

But Gackenbach said he will give the developers until Wednesday to iron out their differences.

“We don’t want it to look like we were the people who killed the deal,” Gackenbach said. “On the other hand, we don’t want this to go on and on.”

Ahmanson Land Co. had promised to sign final development agreements soon after the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the massive housing project Dec. 15. But negotiations have dragged on almost three months.

The deal has been delayed because Ahmanson Land Co., entertainer Bob Hope and Hope’s development partner, Potomac Investment Associates, 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.

Ahmanson has maintained for months that its profit margin from the deal is being whittled away by a bad economy, nine lawsuits and unexpectedly high demands for payouts from nearby cities of Los Angeles, Calabasas and Malibu, and Los Angeles County.

Representatives for each of the development partners met at Ahmanson corporate offices in Irwindale on Thursday to work out final glitches, but negotiators would not reveal the results of the meeting.

Located in the Simi Hills at the Los Angeles County line, the Ahmanson Ranch project would create a community of 8,600 residents. The deal also would turn over about 10,000 acres of mountain land to the National Park Service and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state park agency.