Uncertainty Spurs Proposal to Jointly Develop 2 Ranches : Housing: The builders were not confident their projects would be approved separately. Many details remain unresolved in the Ahmanson-Jordan deal.

Last week’s surprise proposal to combine the giant Ahmanson and Jordan housing projects was fueled by uncertainty, according to principals in the negotiations.

The proposed mega-deal, which would also turn more than 10,000 acres of mountain property into public parkland, is moving forward because all involved feared what might happen if they failed to reach a compromise.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, who initiated the negotiations, thought the County Board of Supervisors would block construction of 750 houses on entertainer Bob Hope’s oak-studded Jordan Ranch--a project she adamantly opposes. But she wasn’t sure.

Developers working with Hope, backed by Gov. Pete Wilson, thought most supervisors might support their project when it came to a vote next year. But they were not confident.

Ahmanson Land Co. executives who proposed construction of 1,850 houses on a second ranch in eastern Ventura County also thought their project might be approved. But they worried that it could fall along with Hope’s when the projects--considered in tandem since 1988--were finally put to a vote.

“The uncertainty was clearly a catalyst for us,” said Fred Maas, vice president of Potomac Investment Associates, which has tried since 1986 to develop Hope’s Jordan Ranch near Agoura Hills.

“To know that at least three supervisors would support something like this, in concept, means a lot, especially after five years,” Maas said.

Donald Brackenbush, president of Ahmanson Land Co., said he also was drawn to the joint project partly because “our level of assurance is higher than before.”

So after VanderKolk secretly told the developers in August that she would support a combined project if Jordan Ranch is preserved, they tentatively agreed to a single project at Ahmanson Ranch, south of Simi Valley at the Los Angeles County line.

When word of the proposal leaked Monday, a majority of county supervisors--VanderKolk, John K. Flynn and Vicky Howard--quickly said they favored it.

Hope, who owns 7,316 acres of the proposed parkland and would receive $29.5 million for his property, has not seen a contract and could still veto the proposal. Indeed, all parties say many details have not been worked out.

But as it now exists, the Ahmanson-Jordan deal is a testament to what can be done when doubts force opposing parties to search for common ground--especially when they are accompanied by a strong push from Gov. Wilson.

Just seven months ago, Hope’s Jordan Ranch project was languishing. Potomac said it might pull out. And Hope’s offer to sell or swap 5,700 acres to park agencies if he were allowed to build on Jordan Ranch seemed nearly lost.

Wilson, who as a U.S. senator had tracked Hope’s proposal because of its regional importance, made the parkland acquisition a top priority.

In March, the new governor and U.S. Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. simultaneously endorsed a controversial swap involving federal parkland that would give Hope an access road to Jordan Ranch. And the governor invited county officials to Sacramento to talk about a compromise.

VanderKolk, though offended by what she saw then as state intervention in local affairs, now says Wilson’s interest prompted her to reconsider her position.

“He asked us, ‘What would be acceptable to you?’ ” VanderKolk said. “That got us thinking.”

The meeting also had an effect on Flynn, who had opposed the Jordan Ranch project. He said after the meeting, “It certainly makes the project more significant when you have people like the governor and the secretary of Interior involved in it.”

Flynn said that over the next several months he toured the ranch by helicopter and four-wheel-drive vehicle with guides from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a principal supporter of Hope’s offer. He said he decided that a Jordan Ranch project, scaled down from 750 houses to 450 or 500, might be a good idea.

Even before the Wilson meeting, Supervisor Howard said she favored Hope’s deal because it would turn rugged Runkle Ranch northeast of Simi Valley into parkland and prevent construction of a landfill there. Howard represents the Simi Valley area.

By July, VanderKolk and her staff said they had begun discussing with state officials the possibility of a joint project. Conservancy Director Joseph T. Edmiston, whose agency would receive thousands of acres of Hope land, was contacted.

Edmiston said VanderKolk’s suggestion was more than he had hoped for.

“I would have thought that the most likely outcome was simply a manipulation of the numbers (of houses) at Jordan Ranch, so everyone at the end was screaming about equally,” Edmiston said. “That’s government by equal pain, and it’s lousy government. What they produced instead is the optimum solution.”

When VanderKolk’s office made its pitch to Ahmanson and Potomac in August, Ahmanson liked the idea, but Potomac was reluctant, the supervisor said. Potomac saw the momentum shifting Hope’s way, considering Wilson and Lujan’s support, and did not want to jump quickly for the alternative, sources said.

“The prospect of a more acceptable deal on Jordan Ranch was on track,” said Richard Sybert, director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

But Potomac was not so sure.

“I always said Jordan Ranch had 2 2/3 votes, which means it’s not quite there,” Howard said. “When Potomac looked at the situation, they said they could not count to three votes either.”

Supervisors Maggie Erickson Kildee and Susan K. Lacey, either of whom could provide the swing vote, said last week that they never supported the original Jordan Ranch proposal, even with fewer houses. They said they might not vote for the consolidated project on Ahmanson Ranch because it would violate the county’s policy of orderly growth, clog roads and pollute the air.

Maas, the Potomac vice president, would not discuss his company’s initial reservations about a joint venture except to say that the proposal revealed last week was nothing like the one proposed in August.

Edmiston said Ahmanson originally proposed to buy out Potomac’s interests. “It was a straight buyout scenario, with Ahmanson writing a check,” he said.

But as the negotiations progressed, it became clear that the partnership could work while eliminating the objections of most opponents, Maas said. “Without question, this was a business judgment on our part.”

Ahmanson liked the consolidation, not only because it enhanced the prospects of county approval but also because the Potomac project would increase the number of houses at Ahmanson Ranch from 1,850 to 2,600, Brackenbush said.

The larger number would make the community’s school system and small business district more viable, he said.

Key sticking points remain, including whether the Professional Golfers’ Assn. Tour and Hope will approve of the new proposal, Maas said.

Under the original project, Jordan Ranch would have been an enclave for the rich--luxury homes surrounding one of only 15 golf courses in the nation owned by the PGA Tour. It would have been a tournament stop on the senior tour. And a Bob Hope golf museum would have been there.

The new plan also calls for a PGA course, named after Hope. But Hope’s attorney, Payson Wolff, has said that the 88-year-old comic was upset at first “by the notion that what he envisioned as a beautiful, great golf course on the southern part of the Jordan Ranch couldn’t come about.”

The consolidated project, while drawing widespread support, still faces some opposition.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Joy Picus, whose San Fernando Valley district is across the county line from Ahmanson Ranch, said she will try to block it because of increased traffic.

And Agoura Hills-based Save Open Space, which recruited VanderKolk as a slow-growth supervisorial candidate last year, also opposes the joint project at Ahmanson.

But Flynn, Howard and VanderKolk said they favor the consolidation because it would preserve all Jordan Ranch as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and would fill in critical gaps in a regional wildlife corridor.

Five separate parcels in the Santa Monica Mountains, Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mountains would become parkland. Ahmanson would give 3,025 acres to the National Park Service. And Hope would sell 300 acres in Liberty Canyon in Calabasas, 339-acre Corral Canyon in Malibu, 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch and the 4,369-acre Runkle Ranch. The conservancy and the National Park Service would pay the $29.5 million, parks officials said.

While budgets are tight, a Senate-House committee last week approved about $10 million that the National Park Service could route to Hope as a down payment. The rest of the money is supposed to come from a $628-million bond issue that state officials hope to have on next June’s ballot, Edmiston said.

Edmiston said the governor’s office, which last week referred to the joint project as “the park deal of the century” in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has promised its full backing to gain necessary state approvals.

“What is offered was everybody’s second choice,” Edmiston said. “But at least it is an agreement. And certainty, or as close as you can get to it, is worth a tremendous amount.”