Picus’ Plan May Force Huge Tract to Shrink : Development: Planning officials confirm that councilwoman’s threat could deter the project.

Developers of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch project near West Hills could be forced to reduce the size of the huge development if Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus succeeds in blocking the extension of Victory Boulevard, a planning official said Thursday.

Picus elaborated Thursday on plans to block a proposal by the Ahmanson Land Co. to extend the western end of Victory Boulevard into southeast Ventura County, where the 3,000-house development would be located on nearly 2,000 acres.

The extension is a crucial element of the company’s plans, which also include building 3 million square feet of commercial development, two golf courses and two hotels, said Dennis Hawkins, senior Ventura County planner in charge of the environmental impact report for the project.

“It is possible they’d have to downsize the project” because the other four main access roads to the project probably could not handle the 70,000 trips per day the project is expected to generate, Hawkins said.

An Ahmanson Land Co. executive refused Thursday to speculate on the possible effect of Picus’ action but acknowledged that a Victory Boulevard connection is very important to the project.

Extending Victory Boulevard into the project “would provide us with the easiest and most logical access” to the west San Fernando Valley and offer 10,000 motorists per day an east-west alternative route to the Ventura Freeway, Ahmanson Senior Project Manager Guy Gniadek said.

But Gniadek said the effect of Picus’ plan could not immediately be determined. “It has never been analyzed,” he said.

Gniadek also said he hoped that Picus would meet with Ahmanson officials to get a firsthand look at their plans for the project. “Her input on the project would be invaluable,” he said.

Picus’ opposition adds to the obstacles facing Ahmanson Ranch. The election last spring of a slow-growth candidate also leaves the project facing a possible hostile majority on the five-member Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Under the development proposal, Victory would link up with Las Virgenes Road, Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Crummer Canyon Road. Those three roads would loop northward into the Ahmanson Ranch project. Victory now dead-ends just west of Valley Circle Boulevard.

At the very least, if Picus can block the Victory Boulevard extension, a 1,000-page, $500,000 environmental study of the Ahmanson Ranch project--which had been set for completion by early next month--would have to be revised, Hawkins said.

Picus’ strategy depends upon a 1-by-100-foot strip of land known as a “one-foot blocker,” which resembles a narrow crosswalk near the end of the road. The blocker is a device by which the city retains control when developers want to link their projects to city streets.

Until that ribbon of land, lying near the county line, is designated as a public street, Ahmanson can not link its roadway system to Victory Boulevard, Picus and city officials contend.

“We could put up a barrier there if they tried” to build the road without city permission, said Linda Arnold, a Los Angeles city Bureau of Engineering analyst.

The strip of land was reserved for use by the city in 1983 when the adjacent subdivision was approved by the City Council, said Stan Sysak, a senior Bureau of Engineering official.

It is up to Ahmanson Land Co. to initiate the request that the land be designated as a public street. Assistant City Atty. Ed C. Dygert said Ahmanson could prompt the City Council to vote on its request. “But there’s no way they can compel the city to accept the land as a public street,” he said.

But Gniadek said Ahmanson’s attorneys believe that their client already has authority under a deed to the land “to connect a road from Ahmanson Ranch to Victory Boulevard,” Gniadek said.

“I call it ‘limbo land,’ ” Picus said of the 100-foot-long-by-1-foot-wide section of Victory Boulevard at a news conference Thursday at which, flanked by about 20 local homeowners, she made a second announcement of her plan. “I do not want this project to be a defeat for Victory Boulevard,” the councilwoman said.

“Not only will there be a tremendous amount of traffic, it will increase smog around here until it’s like a freeway,” said Angela Herschel, a resident of West Hills, a neighborhood traversed by Victory Boulevard. “We’ll work closely with Joy on this--she’s our only hope.”

With all the hurdles facing it, “there’s no guarantee the project would be approved anyway,” regardless of the outcome of Picus’ efforts, Hawkins said.

Under current plans, about 3,000 acres of the 5,477-acre Ahmanson property would be dedicated to the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. The remainder is now zoned as open space, a designation the developer is proposing to change through a General Plan amendment that would eventually come before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. Advocates of slow growth will hold a majority on the board in January when Maria VanderKolk takes office. Voters narrowly elected the environmental activist in June.