640 Acres on the Path to Becoming Parkland : Newbury Park: Last obstacles are removed for conservancy to buy Broome Ranch parcel for $4.2 million.

The rugged, backcountry tract known as Broome Ranch should become public parkland within 45 days, officials said Friday after calling off complex legal proceedings that had threatened to delay the deal.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will buy the 640-acre parcel in Newbury Park for $4.2 million from the estate of George P. Huck, the former landowner who was slain nine years ago.

“We’re excited because all parties have agreed,” conservancy Executive Director Joseph T. Edmiston said. “We think this one will stick.”

The deal was sealed Friday after the estate’s major creditor, Union Bank, agreed to write off one loan and accept full payment on another. The estate’s lawyers and administrators settled for receiving 30 cents on the dollar for the roughly $2.8 million in fees and commissions they are owed.

“Everyone said, ‘Enough is enough, let’s get this thing resolved,’ ” said David Hardacre, an attorney for the estate. “I could (complain) that I’ve cleaned this mess up and I’m not going to get fair compensation, but that’s the way it goes. Nobody’s going to bleed for the lawyers.”

Union Bank officials confirmed Friday that an agreement had been reached. Hardacre and Edmiston said the bank would be paid in full the $2.8-million loan it had advanced the Huck estate two years ago. The bank will not recoup any of an earlier $4-million loan to George Huck.

The agreement on how to allocate proceeds from the sale will eliminate the need for a probate hearing, which had been scheduled for mid-September. Instead, the interested parties Friday issued a formal notice of intent to sell Broome Ranch to the conservancy, Edmiston said.

Those connected to the Huck estate but left out of the wheeling and dealing--including four minor creditors owed a total of $400,000--now have 15 days to file objections. But such complaints are not expected, officials said, since no one protested earlier attempts to dispose of Broome Ranch.

“It would be very risky to hold up a $4-million sale on the basis of some small, unsecured loans--and there’s no money for them anyway,” Hardacre said. “I don’t think anyone would be that stupid. But who knows--the smog in L.A. makes people do some crazy things.”

The minor creditors include other lawyers, developers and a former maid who won a $60,000 judgment from the estate when the courts found that Huck had maliciously prosecuted her by pressing a tenuous defamation case, Hardacre said. Huck’s heirs and beneficiaries could also file objections, he said, but they have already received millions over the past decade.

If no one objects by the 15-day deadline, the conservancy and the Huck estate would immediately open escrow. The sale could be completed 30 days later, Edmiston said. A probate hearing would not be necessary if both the sale and the disposition of funds were uncontested.

“Within 45 days, I believe we will have the property,” Edmiston said.

Long coveted by Thousand Oaks residents and parks officials, Broome Ranch is seen as the gateway to an unbroken stretch of mountainous open space stretching through Point Mugu State Park to the Pacific Ocean.

The National Park Service has expressed interest in purchasing at least 147 acres from the conservancy to add to its holdings in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. And the city of Thousand Oaks may consider buying some of the flat, grassy plain just off Potrero Road, possibly for a golf course.