June 'I Do' Will Come With a View on Lawns of Joel McCrea Ranch : Parks: District takes the first step to opening 220 acres of scenic Thousand Oaks property to the public by allowing weddings.

By JOANNA M. MILLER

Aug. 21, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

THOUSAND OAKS — Planning a wedding? Picture this: exchanging vows on the lushly landscaped lawns of a 50-year-old ranch house where a Hollywood couple spent 40 idyllic years and reared their three sons.

The Joel McCrea Ranch, nestled in a canyon cooled by the shade of decades-old eucalyptus and pepper trees among the golden hills of the Santa Rosa Valley, will be available for weddings in time for next year’s June brides, officials say.

“This lawn is what the family used most,” said Joel McCrea’s grandson, Wyatt, who stood last week on the lawn near stone steps leading to a bathhouse and blue-bottomed pool. “It’s cool here, and before the foliage grew up and the smog came in, you could see the ocean.”

In fact, a walk down a path and up the side of a slope where crescent-shaped eucalyptus leaves blanket the ground shows a visitor that the ocean is still visible.

Offering the lawns of the ranch house for receptions is the first step in opening 220 acres of the scenic ranch to the public, said Tom Sorensen, parks and planning administrator for the Conejo Recreation and Parks District.

The district acquired most of the 300-acre ranch--located at the foot of the Norwegian Grade in the northeast end of Thousand Oaks just south of Moorpark--on June 15 through a financial exchange that amounts to a donation from the family.

The district also plans eventually to open the 3,500-square-foot ranch house, where the family summered until last year and where the couple lived before Joel McCrea’s death in 1990. McCrea’s widow, Frances Dee McCrea, now lives half a mile away in a small converted bunkhouse near the road.

Among plans being considered for the ranch house are a conference center, library or museum. But the spacious old house, with its no-nonsense interior brick wall and wood floor, and generous porch overlooking the sloping lawns, first needs substantial work.

It must be retrofitted to be earthquake-safe. And it has asbestos in the roof and lead in the paint that need to be removed, among other improvements.

“There is a different standard for public than for private buildings,” Sorensen said.

The district hopes to place a bond measure on a ballot in 1996 to fund necessary improvements to the ranch. There are no estimates yet on the cost.

The district acquired the ranch in a deal worked out by Tex Ward, a McCrea family friend and district manager. Under the deal, Frances Dee McCrea will continue to live in the former bunkhouse that fronts Moorpark Road. Wyatt McCrea and his wife, Lisa, will live in a converted barn on the 80-acre portion of the property not purchased by the district.

The remaining 220 acres of rolling hills with a creek and natural wells will be owned and managed by the district.

The district’s property is next to a 75-acre parcel donated by the family in 1981 and designated a wildlife preserve.

The ranch was purchased by Joel and Frances McCrea in 1933.

The McCrea sons, Peter, Joel Dee and David, grew up on the ranch, a childhood Peter McCrea recently described as heaven. Peter McCrea has now moved to the East Coast, and his two brothers live in New Mexico.

Still standing in a tree overhanging a rough wooden footbridge crossing a creek near the main ranch house is a treehouse with the words “The Tree Boys” carved in its side. The treehouse now lists to one side, as though it might fall into the creek bed below.

“My grandmother didn’t want me up there because she thought it was unsafe,” Wyatt McCrea said.

In an innovative financial deal, Ward arranged for the cash-strapped district to use its self-insurance trust fund to finance the $1.95-million purchase price. The McCrea family then made an irrevocable pledge to turn over to the district family trusts that will total $1.8 million over the next 20 years.

At least one-third of the money will be paid within 10 years, and the balance will be due by 2005. That balance could be paid sooner, depending on the life spans of the family members.

The arrangement allows the district to purchase the property now while the McCreas continue to earn dividends on the funds and secure a tax advantage through the trusts.

Since the property was acquired in June, the district has approved $20,000 for master planning for the ranch. Once officials know what kinds of things can be done with the land, they will hire a pollster to find out whether the public supports the ideas, Sorensen said.

“They’re the bosses,” he said of the public. “We’re trying to find out what they really want and what they’ll pay for.”

Because the timing for the improvements depends on finances, Sorensen said it is unclear when the projects might be complete and the rest of the ranch open to the public.

“It’s a fiscal issue,” he said.

Other than weddings on the lawns, no plans are set yet. Among ideas being considered is a fishing pond that would be created in a sloped field where safflower was grown and where the McCrea boys played football as children.

“They called that the prairie bowl,” Sorensen said.

A creek that flows in the spring runs through the bowl. Wellheads used to irrigate the land that McCrea worked with a horse and plow remain in place.

McCrea did not use tractors on his land and never farmed with pesticides, his grandson said.

“It takes a little more manpower to do things that way,” Wyatt McCrea said, gesturing to the lawns around him. “But as you can see, [pesticides are] not a necessity.”

McCrea said he hopes the district will maintain that practice. Although Sorensen could not say whether that was feasible, he said the district uses pesticides sparingly.

Other possibilities for the land include a Western-style summer day camp, where youths might learn to ride horses and enjoy the outdoors.

“My grandmother would love any use of the land that helps kids,” McCrea said. “Her whole focus is towards children.”