Massive Projects’ Effects ‘Unavoidable’ : Jordan, Ahmanson ranches: Developments would significantly affect air and traffic, reports say.

Two massive housing projects planned for southeast Ventura County would have “unavoidable, significant” impacts on air quality, traffic and the area’s rural environment, according to draft environmental reports released Monday.

The reports evaluate developments proposed for the adjacent Jordan and Ahmanson ranches, which together would bring about 11,000 new residents and 240 acres of commercial, office and retail space to the rolling hills east of Thousand Oaks at the Los Angeles County line.

The purpose of the environmental reports, which total 1,900 pages, is to give the County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors details of the environmental consequences of each project and to suggest steps that can be taken to reduce or avoid impacts.

The environmental reports noted that the ranch projects would each generate $2 million more a year than it would cost county agencies to provide services for them.

The environmental report on the 5,477-acre Ahmanson Ranch, the larger of the two developments, found that traffic generated by the project would “substantially exceed” that allowed by Ventura County’s 1987 Air Quality Mangement Plan, as well as the South Coast Air Quality’s Management District’s emission thresholds. The report concludes that even with measures such as bikeways and pedestrian walkways, “long-term emissions would not be less than significant.”

The report also found that the project would create a disproportionate number of jobs compared to the amount of affordable housing that will be needed by workers at the developments’ new businesses.

In addition to 3,000 houses, the Ahmanson development would include 3 million square feet of office space, two hotels and two golf courses on nearly 2,000 acres of land east of Thousand Oaks. About 3,000 acres will be left in open space or used for community recreational facilities.

The report listed similar problems with the Jordan Ranch development, which formally calls for 1,152 residences and a tournament golf course to be built on 1,208 acres of the 2,308-acre ranch, just south of Simi Valley.

In addition to causing significant increases in traffic and smog, the report found that the project would destroy 10 to 20 acres of wetlands and kill 1,100 trees in Liberty and Cheeseboro canyons and development areas.

Officials from Potomac Investment Associates, which has an option to buy Jordan Ranch from entertainer Bob Hope and develop it, could not be reached for comment Monday. However, Potomac officials have said that the environmental report is based on an outdated proposal and may require time-consuming revisions.

The report analyzes the original proposal for 1,152 residences on Jordan Ranch and a four-lane access road, instead of the two-lane road and 750 houses that are now proposed.

Potomac officials said they were worried that if the proposal was amended while being analyzed by county planners, officials might scrap the environmental review and start over. Instead, the developers said they would offer the scaled-down plan during a review period over the next two months.

Don Brackenbush, president of the Ahmanson Land Co., said that each of the areas targeted by the report as having “unavoidable and significant impacts” was debatable. Brackenbush said the company’s environmental consultants will spend the next two weeks studying the report to see if they agree with the impacts outlined before deciding how to proceed with the project.

“We’re going to be optimistic that we will solve everybody’s problems,” Brackenbush said. “What we would propose to do is change the project sufficiently to make sure the benefits outweigh the negative impacts.”

Brackenbush, however, declined to comment on whether the company would consider reducing the size of its project to lessen its environmental drawbacks.

“Until we really understand the environmental impact report, I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” Brackenbush said. “We’re just going to have to study it like everybody else. We’re optimistic about it.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who has criticized the Ahmanson project because it would increase traffic in her west San Fernando Valley district, said she was not surprised by the report’s findings.

“You can’t have a project with 3,000 homes and 3 million square feet of commercial space . . . and not affect traffic in the adjacent area,” Picus said.

Picus said she is strongly opposed to the developer’s proposal to extend Victory Boulevard in West Hills into Ventura County because of the tremendous amounts of traffic it would funnel onto the boulevard. The project is expected to generate an additional 70,000 vehicle trips per day throughout the surrounding area, county officials have said.

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