RSS
Home
Magnificent ranch...and you own it!
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
It's a magnificent ranch, any way you happen on to it, and its 588 acres in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains are yours. As an owner, you have the opportunity to say how you want the King Gillette Ranch to evolve.
The public is invited to attend a meeting at the ranch beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18 to discuss a design plan and environmental assessment. Public input will also be accepted in writing through Dec. 2.
Located just east of Las Virgenes Road at 26800 Mulholland Hwy, Calabasas, the ranch was originally developed by razor magnate King Gillette. Its human history goes back 9,000 years when initially inhabited by Chumash Indians.
The ranch took on a decidedly different incarnation when Soka University acquired the land and established a campus on the property and in due time announced plans to quadruple its size. This would have required massive road improvements, causing an uproar of the local citizenry who saw the specter of despoiling the pristine environment.
Plans to turn part of the property into a a tony spa-resort were also hooted down for the same reasons.
But wonder of wonders, four public agencies not only worked out means to acquire the land from Soka (your public contribution of $35 million swung the deal in 2007), they pretty much agreed on a conceptual plan that would make Gillette Ranch the strategic portal to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, created by Congress more than 25 years ago.
Now the ranch caretakers are the National Park Service, California State Parks, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
"We're trying to create a vision for the Gillette Ranch that serves the public in terms of getting them to the National Recreation Area and all the programs that are available," said NPS Superintendent Woody Smeck. "The public is the ultimate customer and we want to engage them in that effort."
Four distinct plans are under consideration, divided into zones of degree of use. Concepts under discussion include ecological restoration zones, parking and circulation improvements, trails and use of existing buildings for visitor service improvements, including a visitor center, and environmental education facilities and agency administrative offices.
The more moderate areas on the outskirts of the property would be set aside for low-impact use such as hiking and bird-watching. The area closer to the exisiting infrastructure, just east of Malibu Creek State Park, would accommodate school groups, clients can rent the original King Mansion for such activities as parties and weddings, and movie companies can utilize facilities for film shoots.
Written comments can be directed to King Gillette Ranch Planning Project, attn: Project Manager, 401 W. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360.
Comments can be emailed to SAMO_KGR_Planning@nps.gov or smmc.ca.gov/KGRP.
