RITTER DISPUTE SETTLED CONSERVATION AUTHORITY SUED OVER HOUSING-PROJECT LAND.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LEONA VALLEY - A lawsuit over more than 4,200 acres of scrub-covered mountains set aside as open space in 1992 as part of the Ritter Ranch housing project has been settled.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, an arm of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, was given the ridge-top land in 1995 to preserve for hiking, riding and biking trails, but a Delaware investment firm held a lien on the acreage and was seeking to foreclose.

The conservation authority filed a lawsuit against the company in January to clear title to the land, citing a 1992 development agreement between Palmdale and the original developer that called for the property to be dedicated to open space.

The conservation authority's attorney said the matter was settled and the case was dismissed, adding that the terms of the settlement were confidential.

``The MRCA continues to hold open space land. The result is the same. It continues to hold the land as open space. It's just as it was before,'' attorney I. Bruce Speiser said.

The attorney for the company, D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios, could not be reached for comment.

The 7,200-home Ritter Ranch master-plan community was approved in the early 1990s but never built because the Antelope Valley's 1980s real estate boom went bust. Instead, the project stalled with financial problems, legal maneuvers and bankruptcy proceedings.

A bankruptcy court auction in August 2004 sold the project for $57.2 million to an Irvine-based development company, SunCal, whose officials said construction could start this year.

Planned to accommodate upward of 20,000 inhabitants, a golf course and seven schools, the development was approved by Palmdale officials with the condition that a large part of its 10,650 acres would remain undeveloped.

To provide for management of the largest piece of open space, it was turned over to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which was created by the state Legislature in 1980 to acquire land and operate outdoor programs in the Santa Monica Mountains and the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority was created by a joint powers agreement between the conservancy and the Conejo and Rancho Simi recreation and park districts.

The Ritter Ranch open space was described in court records as having varied and valuable wildlife habitat and over 60 miles of trails for future regional recreational use.

In December 1995, 4,234 acres were deeded to the mountains authority to be used as open space, and the authority has maintained the property as open space since that time, Speiser said earlier.

The lien on the property was recorded in April 1995, the lawsuit said. The lien, issued as the project was falling into financial disarray, covered all the proposed development, not just the open space.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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