File Permissions

Hello,

I've been trying to figure out the best way for configuring file permissions on Red Hat 5.3 and above but I'm having no luck.

What I want to do is create a directory which will have hundereds and hundreds of files and sub-directories.
On the top level I want to set the UID, GID and permissions and have it go through and change every sub-directory and file. Obviously the -R option will do this for me.
But what I need to happen is whenever a new file or sub-durectory gets created by a user I want it to inherit the permissions/ownership from the upper levels.
Our .cshrc/.bashrc are configured for a umask of 2 so we cannot use Sticky Bits in this situation.
I've looked at ACLs and it doesn't seemt o ahve an option for inheriting permissions/ownerships.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Matt