Builders Offer Major Ahmanson Plan Cuts

Bowing to the reality of Ventura County’s slow-growth politics, developers of the 5,477-acre Ahmanson Ranch in the southeast county hills offered Tuesday to dramatically slash the size of their controversial proposal.

Donald Brackenbush, president of Ahmanson Land Co., announced a new plan calling for construction of 1,850 houses on the ranch, a cut of 1,150 dwellings. The proposal reduces the size of the offices and shops planned for the massive project from 3 million square feet to 400,000 square feet.

Under the new proposal, 4,125 acres of the 5,477-acre ranch would be dedicated to the National Park Service, an increase of 1,100 acres over the original proposal, Brackenbush said. The plan would cluster all development on about 10% of the ranch, he said.

“We’ve responded to the concerns” of critics, Brackenbush said.

Members of the County Board of Supervisors, though only generally familiar with the changes, tended to agree.

Supervisors Maggie Erickson and John K. Flynn, who have expressed reservations about the project, said Tuesday that Ahmanson’s changes are substantial and enhance its chances of approval.

“They’ve certainly tried hard to bring it down to where it could be acceptable,” Erickson said. “But it is going to take some time for me to look at it.”

Flynn said Tuesday: “I think it stands a much better chance than it did before. This has improved its position by a great percentage.”

Russ Baggerly, an aide to new county Supervisor Maria VanderKolk and a leading county environmentalist before he was hired by her, said the smaller proposal “is a step in the right direction.”

Ahmanson’s plan to concentrate development on a small part of the ranch “is an attempt to reduce impacts through some progressive planning ideas,” Baggerly said. “But whether it’s enough to solve inconsistencies with the General Plan remains to be seen.”

The county General Plan broadly prohibits construction of new communities unless they are next to existing subdivisions. No Ventura County community abuts the Ahmanson project, though it is bordered to the south and east by Los Angeles County communities.

County officials, environmental groups and community groups--as well as engineers who conducted the county’s study of the effects of the proposed subdivision--have said that, as first proposed, the project is so large it would spur traffic snarls, air pollution and destruction of the area’s rural environment.

Ahmanson announced its new plan before a meeting today by a county committee studying a report on the environmental consequences of the proposal. Brackenbush said the original proposal would not be withdrawn but added that the new scaled-down plan is an alternative.

At a hearing 2 1/2 months ago, critics said the original plan would cause problems ranging from traffic jams to loss of steelhead trout in Malibu Creek.

There would be virtual deadlock on the Ventura Freeway at the Valley Circle Boulevard, Crummer Canyon Road and Las Virgenes Road interchanges if the project were approved as proposed, they said.

Representatives of a variety of Malibu-area organizations said the environmental study had not even considered the impact of the silt that will run off as 54 million cubic yards of dirt are graded during construction.

But Brackenbush said Tuesday that changes have reduced grading by two-thirds and have curtailed other negative effects.

The new proposal lessens but does not resolve problems Los Angeles city officials have had with the project. City Councilwoman Joy Picus has said the original project would funnel 70,000 cars a day onto Victory Boulevard, just across the county line from the ranch. The boulevard would still be a main road into the project.