Want to get your hands on some prime lakeside acreage nestled in the foothills of a mountain range?

No, we’re not talking some Rocky Mountains wilderness tract. Try the Antelope Valley instead.

Elizabeth Lake, which at two miles in length is Los Angeles County’s largest natural lake, is on the market for $19.5 million actually, to be precise, about half the lake and an adjacent 65 acres.

Sounds enticing for a developer with plans for a marina or resort, right? Maybe, maybe not.

For the last 25 years, Ridgetop Ranch Properties Inc., of Big Sky, Mont., has owned the property. Originally, Ridgetop also was the owner of a nearby golf course and used the lake to irrigate it. But Chief Financial Officer Jeff Johnson said that once the golf course was sold in 2002 the lake was no longer needed.

While the lake is zoned for resort and recreational uses, Ridgetop believes the property might be most valuable as “environmental mitigation” for developers of other projects. State law requires developers with projects deemed to cause environmental damage to purchase offsetting mitigation credits. Those who buy for mitigation don’t develop the property.

The Elizabeth Lake property borders the north side of the Angeles National Forest and has one of the largest concentrations of these credits in the county. It is home to 138 wildlife species, including many such as the Southwestern pond turtle, that are either endangered or close to being so.

Mark Simon, a Prudential California Realty agent who has the listing, said in the month that the property has been listed five parties have submitted tentative offers: three interested in the credits, one wanting to develop a private club and another wanting to build a small campsite with cabins.

Any development is almost certain to face opposition from environmental groups; a local conservation group has already weighed in against development.

What’s more, the lake sits in the middle of the San Andreas Fault zone. Indeed, the lake formed in a small valley that was created after a prehistoric quake triggered the collapse of a section of the fault. So far, Simon and Johnson said, no one has inquired about the earthquake risk.