WILDLIFE CORRIDOR HINGES ON DEALS FOR 200 ACRES.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

With the future acquisition of nearly 4,650 acres of land as part of the Ahmanson Ranch agreement, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is close to realizing its nine-year plan to create a 40-mile wildlife corridor stretching from the ocean into the Los Padres National Forest.

With a development boom under way in Ventura County, including Ahmanson's planned 3,050-home mini-city, the conservancy is hoping to close deals with six landowners on about 200 additional acres that would complete the corridor.

``If we don't get the land now, we'll never get it,'' said Joe Edmiston, executive director. ``The pressures on this land are phenomenally intense, both between institutions like Los Angeles County who want to put a landfill in, (and) developers who want to put in subdivisions. We're being chased by interests with a lot more money than we have.''

To secure development rights from Ventura County supervisors on the 5,700-acre tract south of Bell Canyon, Ahmanson Land Co. agreed to turn over 4,648 acres of Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon land to the conservancy to be used as open space.

Ahmanson bought the land from entertainer Bob Hope for $30 million.

Runkle Ranch, a 4,309-acre tract in the Santa Susana Mountains just north of the Ronald Reagan Freeway between Simi Valley and the Ventura-Los Angeles county line, contains a deep canyon designated as a landfill site under the Los Angeles County solid-waste management plan.

Acquisition of the land will nullify those plans.

Corral Canyon, which consists of 339 acres of canyon and rolling hillside off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, is designated for low- and medium-density development.

When the city incorporated in 1992, however, it placed a virtual moratorium on all subdivisions while it develops its general plan, Edmiston said.

The conservancy could take control of the land as soon as next month.

``We think (the corridor) is vital because you're going to ultimately need to have wildlife movement in order to have viable populations of your higher mammals, such as mountain lions, bobcats, badgers,'' Edmiston said. ``This will be a major coup.''

Ahmanson Land Co. wants to complete the transaction before this fall, when Seattle-based Washington Mutual Federal Savings Bank is expected to close a deal to buy the developer's Irwindale parent company, H.F. Ahmanson & Co., for $10.1 billion.

Both sides announced the sale March 17.

The takeover will not affect the agreement developers have with the county, said Mary Trigg, an Ahmanson spokeswoman.

``We are still held to the original agreement,'' she said. ``The land has to be transferred.''

Meanwhile, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint-powers agency consisting of the conservancy and the Conejo and Rancho Simi park and recreation districts, is scheduled to meet in Beverly Hills on Monday to accept conservation easements on the Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon properties.

The easements would prohibit all future development on the tracts, even if the conservancy sells the land.

Edmiston acknowledged that buying the final 200 acres of Liberty Canyon land to complete the wildlife corridor might be difficult because three of the six owners are reluctant to sell.

The land, which is not part of the Ahmanson Ranch agreement, is nestled between Agoura Hills and Calabasas by the Ventura Freeway.

Since 1980, the conservancy has spent $200 million to buy and preserve about 30,000 acres of land as open space surrounding the San Fernando Valley.