Probst Sells Estate for $10 Million

The local saga of reclusive businessman Charles E. Probst, who donated $2 million to the Civic Arts Plaza only to renege on the promised payments until he was taken to court, may be at an end.

Probst has sold his North Ranch estate--his greatest link to Thousand Oaks other than the Charles E. Probst Center for the Performing Arts--for $10 million, property records show.

That is much less than Probst’s original $18.9-million asking price for the 30-plus-room, Xanadu-like property. It is also less than the $14.5 million that Probst had sought for the 16-acre hilltop estate after it had languished on the market for months.

Probst could not be reached for comment. His local attorney, Paul Stansen, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

The buyers are Charles and Lisa Burtzloff, who own homes in North Ranch, Moorpark and Los Angeles, records show. A celebrity suitor--Pat Sajak of “Wheel of Fortune” fame--was interested in the gated estate, but would not budge above his $9-million offer, sources said.

Signs that something was stirring on the Probst estate were obvious earlier this month when landscapers with trimmers were seen buzzing away at his notoriously unkempt lawn, the subject of a long-standing dispute with neighbors and city officials.

“I just learned we had a new neighbor,” said former supervisorial candidate Trudi Loh, who lives next door to the estate. “I’d seen new pets in the yard, but I haven’t met anyone yet.”

Probst fought the city establishment in 1994 to clear the hillside below his 25,000-square-foot mansion and plant hundreds of trees and shrubs, a grandiose gardening plan that violated a city agreement with the previous landowner and was considered gaudy by his neighbors.

The City Council narrowly approved the lavish landscaping, overturning a decision by the Planning Commission. The vote came just days after Probst donated $2 million to the Alliance for the Arts, the Civic Arts Plaza’s nonprofit fund-raising arm, and critics complained bitterly that Probst had purchased preferential treatment.

Probst made the initial $250,000 payment toward his pledge in late 1994. But in 1995, the alliance revealed that Probst had failed to make two $175,000 installments and in 1996 took him to court for breach of contract. Probst settled the case last year, agreeing to make the remaining payments on an accelerated schedule. Alliance members say the payments are up to date.

Probst also erected a large iron fence around his property--a violation of city codes, which require such fences to be at least 35 feet from Westlake Boulevard. After Thousand Oaks threatened to take it down for him last year, Probst removed the section of the fence facing Westlake Boulevard, but left the rest intact. He never completed it.

Mayor Judy Lazar said she has no regrets about allowing Probst to proceed with his landscaping plan.

“Frankly, I still think it was the right thing to do,” she said. “Given that somebody with a property of that size usually takes care of it, it doesn’t strike me as a bad decision. The other corners on that [intersection] were landscaped, and it made sense to have them all landscaped.”

But Lazar said she will be extremely pleased once the hillside foliage is taken care of once and for all.

“I’m delighted,” Lazar said of the sale. “I would think that anyone who spends that much for a house would want good landscaping, but we’ll have to see. The [requirements] were not on Mr. Probst, they were on the property, and they still need to be addressed.”

Loh said she is looking forward to a highly upgraded lawn from her new neighbors.

“It certainly will be nice to have the hillside taken care of,” Loh said. “In all fairness, it’s hard to get things to grow out here, I know. But it was naive to clear the entire hillside and even try to grow all of that.

“It will be good when it’s upgraded because it’s nothing to look at, that’s for sure.”