Land Exchanges

Atlantic Richfield Co. on Tuesday said it will exchange oil and gas properties in the San Joaquin Valley for some Mobil Corp. properties in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in a $100-million charge to Arco and the potential loss of 270 jobs. With this asset exchange, the Los Angeles oil giant will divest a bit of its corporate history. The old Richfield Oil Corp., which merged with Atlantic Refining Co. in 1966, got its start in the heavy-oil fields of the Bakersfield area.

Seeking to touch a nerve with voters in a key race for Orange County supervisor, candidate Dave Sullivan suggested this week that the government swap a developer's Bolsa Chica property for a portion of the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. If realized, the deal could settle the county's two biggest land use controversies--and block a commercial airport at El Toro when the Marines leave next year.

In what would be the largest deal of its kind in state history, a Southern California conservation group is brokering a $52-million transaction designed to protect 430,000 acres of desert wilderness in and around Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. Under the plan advanced by the Wildlands Conservancy, the land would be transferred from Catellus Development Corp., formerly the real estate arm of the Santa Fe Pacific Corp., to the National Park Service and the U.S.

The highest price ever paid for a private home in the United States was recorded Monday with the $50-million sale of Thunderbird Lodge, the largest private estate at Lake Tahoe. The previous U.S. high was $47.5 million paid by multimedia mogul David Geffen for the Jack L. Warner estate in Beverly Hills in 1990. However, what is thought to be the world's most expensive home sale took place in May when a prominent Hong Kong family sold its property on Victoria Peak for $94.17 million.

Pending a favorable outcome of a public hearing next week, an Arleta-based Presbyterian church will construct several buildings near Corbin Avenue and Rinaldi Street. The Valley Christian Presbyterian Church, with a congregation of 600, hopes to move from its rented space at Arleta's Calvary Lutheran Church to Porter Ranch as soon as one year, Pastor Jae Youn Kim said. The church received the 12 acres it owns in Porter Ranch in a land swap approved by the City Council last year.

Two leading House Republicans raised questions Thursday about the cost of an agreement to give public assets to two private companies if they will drop plans that threaten ancient forests in Northern California and Yellowstone National Park. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Robert L. Livingston (R-La.), and the chairman of its interior subcommittee, Rep.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) is urging the federal government to trade some of its California land holdings in order to fill a crucial link in the Backbone Trail through the Santa Monica Mountains. The uncompleted stretch of the trail, which is administered by the National Park Service, would be cut in half by the plan.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) is urging the federal government to swap some of its California land holdings in order to fill a crucial link in the Backbone Trail through the Santa Monica Mountains. Sherman's plan would halve the uncompleted stretch of trail, which is administered by the National Park Service.

Federal officials are working to acquire $100 million worth of private land in the Mojave Desert to expedite the controversial expansion of the U.S. Army's tank training center at Ft. Irwin and at the same time rescue thousands of acres of wilderness from threatened development. The deal follows other efforts by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to broker land swaps to protect natural resources in Yellowstone National Park and Northern California's Headwaters Forest.

A land-swap proposal aimed at generating money to help transform Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus has raised some concerns among community leaders, who say the plan would eat away at prime farmland and violate an agreement to preserve the greenbelt property.