Group Begins Push to Preserve 640-Acre Site in Newbury Park : Broome Ranch: The public-private consortium might be hard-pressed to vie with developers who covet the land.

Bold red against the muted browns and greens of an expansive field, the signs advertising an upcoming auction of Broome Ranch seem to warn environmentalists: Danger. Potential development ahead.

Trying to head off the possibility that the grassy plain and soft hills might someday be paved over, two dozen politicians, environmentalists and nearby property owners met Thursday to plot a strategy for preserving Broome Ranch as parkland.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Judy Lazar convened the task force with an eye toward acquiring the 640-acre tract on the fringe of Newbury Park as part of a protected greenbelt encircling her city.

But the public-private consortium might be hard-pressed to compete with the deep pockets of developers, who have long coveted Broome Ranch for posh estates.

Situated just south of Potrero Road, the tract sprawls across a flat field and up the rolling ridges of the Santa Monica Mountains, dotted with scrubby chaparral, yellow flowers and the odd eucalyptus tree.

On July 15, Broome Ranch will go on the auction block. Because of depressed land values, the property will very likely sell for less than half the list price of $12 million, analysts said.

Still, even a few million might be too much for cash-strapped public park agencies. So auctioneer Mario Piatelli, who is advertising Broome Ranch throughout Europe and the Pacific Rim, has perfected a sales pitch to woo wealthy developers.

“It would be an excellent speculative buy,” Piatelli said. “It’s a fabulous investment for a developer with staying power.”

Broome Ranch will be eligible for development in five years. The onetime barley farm is now protected under a federal law that preserves agricultural land.

Stretching across mountains and seasonal marshes, a sizable chunk of the ranch is undevelopable. Most of the best building land--the flat plain just south of Potrero Road--lies within Thousand Oaks’ so-called sphere of influence and on its western border.

Under the city’s General Plan, those 250 acres are designated reserve residential, which means that about one house per acre could be built on the acreage once all other parcels within the city have been built to capacity, according to City Manager Grant Brimhall.

Before any development, Thousand Oaks would have to annex the land--an action city officials have declined to take, Lazar said.

Despite this safeguard, the auction scares residents of nearby Newbury Park. They worry that a rich developer will snatch up the land and pressure the city into approving a project that would destroy the region’s rural atmosphere.

“I’ve seen that the city can change any zoning it wants,” said Mike Dunn, whose back yard crests on a hill overlooking the picturesque ranch.

Thousand Oaks has already approved the Dos Vientos project--2,200 residences to be built over two decades--in an expanse of hilly terrain across the street from Broome Ranch. City leaders, however, have repeatedly emphasized their intention to preserve Broome Ranch as is.

Once used for cattle grazing, the property is the gateway to an unbroken stretch of state and federal parkland that sweeps through Point Mugu State Park down to the ocean. Mountain lions, bobcats and gray foxes prowl the ranch. Golden eagles soar overhead. At sunset, coyotes howl from the ridgelines.

All of the region’s major environmental groups--including the National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Conejo Open Space Conservation Authority--support public acquisition of the ranch.

But to achieve that goal, the parcel might have to be broken iNto small chunks for each agency to purchase on its own, said David Gackenbach, the National Park Service’s regional superintendent.

Lazar’s task force will study dividing the ranch among park agencies. But some fear they will not have time to put together a viable financing package with just two months left before the auction.

“In the current fiscal times, there’s a question of whether and to what degree public funds could be used for the land,” said Tab Berg, who represented Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) at Thursday’s meeting.

Congressman Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) also sent representatives to the brainstorming session.

“I don’t think anyone of the group has the money to acquire it alone,” Gackenbach said. “But it’s certainly a high-priority acquisition. So it behooves us to work together.”