Nature Trust pulls out of proposed Naples deal

4/28/00

By MELINDA BURNS
NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
mburns@newspress.com

The Nature Trust, a nonprofit conservation group based in Malibu, appears to be out of the running as a potential buyer for 222 acres at Naples, south of Highway 101.

In an unexpected move this month, trust officials offered to assign their purchase option to the California Department of Parks and Recreation. But Matt Osgood, the Orange County developer who was to sell the property, immediately notified the trust that his deal with the group was null and void.

"It was a surprise to us and against our wishes," Osgood said of the offer. "I don't know why the Nature Trust did that. It was not productive. It was out of context with the role that we anticipated them to be playing."

Peter Ireland, president of the one-year-old trust, said his organization made the offer to state Parks in an attempt to break the present stalemate between the county of Santa Barbara and Osgood over the Naples property.

The state could have saved a substantial sum by accepting the trust's offer, Ireland said. Normally, he said, a nonprofit group would sell the land to a public agency for a fee -- in this case, between $2.5 million and $5 million. But the trust did not propose to charge a fee, Ireland said.

"The county was asking, 'Who is the Nature Trust?'Ê" he said. "A clean way to present our motivation is to step away from all fees. I guess I was trying to establish a higher ground for our participation and do it in a way that truly benefited the public."

State Parks officials said this week they had not had time to review the trust's offer. County lawyers expressed only puzzlement, for they had rejected Osgood's agreement with the Nature Trust back in February.

Earlier this year, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to allow Osgood to apply to build up to 88 homes on 263 acres on the north side of 101 at Naples, if he could find a buyer to purchase and preserve 222 acres on the south side. Osgood then signed an agreement giving the Nature Trust an option to buy the 222-acre parcel.

In rejecting this agreement in February, the County Counsel said that Osgood must provide more information about the trust; and drop his demands for guaranteed county approval of 88 new homes on the north side of 101.

Osgood is now working on a new development proposal for Naples. He will submit it to the county this spring, he said, probably without involving the Nature Trust.

"I'm responding to the county's letter, and not by choice," Osgood said. "That group not being local or well-known, some concern's have been expressed."

The developer said he was most worried about protecting his interests, should a nonprofit group or government agency fail to come up with the funds to buy the south 222 acres. The cost of the property has been informally estimated at between $14 million and $18 million.

"If they don't raise the money, then what happens?" Osgood asked. "We really did not have a good answer for that. The main thing for me is making sure all parties have a high probability of getting what they bargained for. We have strong legal rights to a certain level of development at Naples. We're trying to come up with a compromise; but if we can't, at some point we're going to have to proceed with something else."