Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Midpeninsula and Arlie cut deal for 1,000-acre preserve plus 55 home sites

Environmental groups say they'll swallow a bitter pill

Denevi filing a second suit

By Jeff Kearns

Plans for a golf course on the site of the former Jesuit novitiate at Alma College appear to have been scuttled, after landowners cut a deal with preservationists Sept. 30 that would dedicate nearly all of the 1,130 acres as open space and let the owner partially develop the rest of the property.

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Director Craig Britton confirmed Oct. 1 that he had signed a letter of intent to buy more than 200 acres from Arlie Land and Cattle Co. for $5 million. But under the terms of the deal, the open-space dedication would be contingent on Arlie getting approval to sell a total of 55 developable lots.

The entire property is currently made up of 55 separate parcels, which Arlie wants to cluster in one 115-acre area along Bear Creek Road. Once the company gets the green light on that, it will hand over the remaining 800 acres to MROSD.

"After all the controversy, I'm really thrilled the district can jump in and save almost 90 percent of the property for public open space at a price we can afford," Britton said.

The deal isn't cemented yet, however. Midpeninsula and Arlie have signed a non-binding letter of intent to enter into a formal agreement, Britton said.

Pete Denevi, now partnered with Barry Swenson, is still trying to put a private golf course on the 210-acre piece of Arlie's land, and has had an option to buy the land which Arlie has terminated.

Denevi's lawyer, Bill Seligman, said that the option still exists, and he filed a notice of pending action in Superior Court on Oct 1. He said he intends to file a lawsuit alleging that Arlie didn't honor its part of the bargain when the two sides settled a previous suit two weeks ago.

Denevi said that Midpeninsula would be added to the suit because the district continued to negotiate with Arlie while Denevi still had his option on the land.

John Musumeci, Arlie's land director, said, "We will consider any lawsuit to stop this sale as a lawsuit against this community. Therefore, we will defend it passionately."

Denevi said he was going to pay $8 million for the golf course land and had transferred the money to a title company, but Musumeci never transferred the title.

"Arlie can't perform, so they tried to make a deal with Midpen," Denevi said. "It's a pretty sad state of affairs."

"Denevi was supposed to deposit over $4 million, and all they deposited was $400,000," Musumeci said.

The open space deal will be a bitter pill for preservationists to swallow because it will include a cluster of ultra-exclusive homes, but for them it will be far sweeter than turning part of the hillside into a golf course, which several groups, including Greenbelt Alliance, the Sierra Club, Committee for Green Foothills and Friends of Bear Creek Redwoods, have vigorously opposed.

The lots will most likely be sold off individually to developers. In sales literature distributed in June, Arlie asked $750,000 for each lot. If Arlie manages to pull off the sale of all of its property--including the open-space land--the company could more than double its original investment of $18 million. (One five-acre parcel, which is being leased as the location of CDF's Alma Battalion fire station, was sold to another Oregon-based company on June 30.)

Midpeninsula consulted with local environmental groups before entering into a deal with Arlie, Britton said, to gauge support for an open-space deal that included development. Britton added that the groups were willing to go along with an arrangement that included development, which is a first for the district, because the district doesn't have enough money to buy the land outright.

The district's board must approve the arrangement before a permanent deal can be signed, and the matter will probably be agendized for the Oct. 28 meeting.

If Midpeninsula gets the land, Britton says, it would be open to the public in two years at the earliest. Low-intensity uses, such as hiking and equestrian trails in place at other preserves owned by the district, are planned for the site, Britton said, and additional uses, such as campgrounds or picnic areas, might be in the works if the district decides to work with Santa Clara County or the town of Los Gatos.

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