Offer to Be Made on Paramount Ranch : Park service: Purchase of the Agoura property would come from funds earmarked for wilderness acquisition in the Ahmanson deal.

National Park Service officials said Friday the agency will make an offer to purchase a 314-acre mountain property with money that had been set aside to acquire thousands of acres of wilderness as part of the $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch deal.

David Gackenbach, regional superintendent of the park service, said a formal offer for the Paramount Ranch property in Agoura would be made to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy possibly as early as next week. The conservancy, a state park agency, holds the note on the property but does not have the $13.2 million needed to complete the purchase.

“We will be sending them a letter with a request to buy the property,” Gackenbach said, adding that he has already contacted park service administrators in San Francisco to prepare an offer. He declined to comment on how much the park service would pay for the land.

Gackenbach acknowledged that the conservancy might be reluctant to sell the property at this time because it also has an interest in the Ahmanson Ranch deal, which would turn over 10,000 acres of mountain land to the two park agencies for $29.5 million.

“But if they don’t want to sell it, there are other properties” that the money can be used to purchase, Gackenbach said.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, declined to comment on Gackenbach’s announcement.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to speculate on what actions our board may or may not take” regarding the park service’s offer, Edmiston said.

Gackenbach said the park service would use a large portion of the $19.5 million earmarked to purchase new parklands as part of the Ahmanson deal to buy the Paramount Ranch property.

The park service withdrew the money from escrow April 16 because partners in the massive Ahmanson Ranch housing project planned for eastern Ventura County have failed to close the deal, despite three months of negotiations.

“As far as I’m concerned, they’ve had plenty of time to complete the deal,” Gackenbach said.

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 preserving 10,000 acres of open space.

The Ahmanson 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.

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.

Gackenbach said he is moving ahead on the Paramount Ranch acquisition because he is concerned that the federal government will take the park service’s money and use it for something else. He also noted that the Clinton Administration has already said it does not plan to allocate any more money for parkland acquisitions in California next year.

Meanwhile, if the conservancy receives the park service’s offer for the Paramount Ranch property next week, Edmiston said the conservancy’s board may consider the issue at its May 19 meeting.

The conservancy purchased the note on the Paramount Ranch property from Union Federal Savings Bank last year after a development company defaulted on its loan. The conservancy has paid $4.3 million toward the purchase of the property.

The 314-acre ranch is the former site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, just north of Mulholland Highway and west of Cornell Road in Los Angeles County.