Simi Valley Gets $1-Million Grant to Buy Hopetown
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The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has awarded $1 million in state funds to the City of Simi Valley and its local park district for the purchase of the former Hopetown movie ranch.
The city and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District will jointly own and operate a regional park on 172 acres of Hopetown, which is south of the Simi Valley Freeway at Kuehner Drive in the southeast corner of the city.
Developer Griffin Homes of Calabasas, which is purchasing the entire 212-acre parcel from entertainer Bob Hope, has agreed to sell the larger part of Hopetown to the city and park district for $1 million in cash and about $700,000 in development-fee discounts and other considerations, city officials said.
Griffin will seek city approval to build 233 single-family homes on the other 40 acres of the property, company officials said.
More than 3,500 films and television shows were shot at Hopetown, formerly known as Corriganville. The name of the movie set was changed after comedian Hope purchased the property in 1965.
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