L.A.’s Picus Fights Road for Project : Ahmanson Ranch: The councilwoman plans to use a one-foot-wide strip of street to restrict access to development.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus vowed Wednesday to restrict a huge Ventura County development project by denying developers access to a one-foot-wide strip of roadway.

The target of Picus’ concern is a plan to build 2,600 houses, a 400,000-square-foot retail-office complex and two golf courses on the Ahmanson Ranch property in the hills of eastern Ventura County.

Picus fears that the development would clog the western end of Victory Boulevard with traffic.

The one-foot strip of land at the end of Victory Boulevard is needed to connect the project to Los Angeles County roads. Picus wants the Los Angeles City Council to refuse to dedicate the strip as a city street because the city has never officially accepted this strip as part of Victory.

“Our attorneys are certain we have the clout with that one-foot strip to prevent them from pushing through Victory Boulevard,” said Picus, outlining a plan that typified her behind-the-scenes politicking to stymie the Warner Ridge project in her district last year.

Picus opposed a much larger project first proposed for Ahmanson Ranch. The latest blueprint for developing Ahmanson Ranch, unveiled Monday, “doesn’t sound acceptable to me,” Picus said.

Under the plan, two parks agencies would purchase nearly 10,000 acres of parkland for $29.5 million as part of the complicated deal that involves comedian and property owner Bob Hope; Potomac Investment Associates, the proposed developer of Hope’s 2,300-acre Jordan Ranch; and Ahmanson Land Co., owner of the 5,477-acre Ahmanson Ranch.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a principal backer of the Ahmanson project, said he did not think that Picus’ concerns could kill the combined project because it has so many supporters--including Gov. Pete Wilson.

“I would be surprised if that would be the issue that would stop it,” Edmiston said.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved the much larger Porter Ranch project north of the Simi Valley Freeway, he said.

“Porter Ranch has a minimum of open space, and it will be a whole new city. So I think that somehow the City Council can find a way not to block this project.”

Picus acknowledged that the Ahmanson-Jordan Ranch plan being studied by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors contains the “very appealing” feature of turning 10,000 acres of mountain property into public parkland.

Despite that, she said, the effect of the project on her constituents is her most immediate concern.

In recent weeks, Picus gained notoriety when transcripts of her testimony in a $100-million lawsuit filed against the city by the frustrated developers of Warner Ridge were made public. The testimony reveals that Picus used tricks and threats to get her way as she rounded up votes at City Hall to block Warner Ridge’s proposed 810,000-square-foot commercial project.

A source close to the Ahmanson project privately said there was a concern that Picus--who won some kudos for her efforts to block Warner Ridge--might now try to live up to her image as a tough fighter, making it harder to reach an agreement with Ahmanson Land Co.

Meanwhile, Don Brackenbush, a top Ahmanson executive, said he hoped that Picus would withhold judgment about the project until she has had a chance to fully review it.

“I think we can accommodate her,” Brackenbush said.

Referring to Picus’ threat to block access to the project, he said, “We don’t want to test whether she can really do that. We want a happy solution to this rather than a fight.”

Picus first opposed the project because it was linked to the Ventura Freeway via Thousand Oaks Boulevard and connected to the West San Fernando Valley, including Warner Center, via Victory Boulevard. This roadway system offered commuters a way to bypass the Ventura Freeway by looping through the project and onto Victory Boulevard. This threatened to turn Victory into a virtual freeway, Picus said.

But under the new plan, the streets within the project between Victory Boulevard and Las Virgenes Road are so circuitous “that no one in their right mind would take this route as an alternative to the freeway because it would take longer to drive,” Brackenbush said.

The proposed commercial component of the project also is designed to serve the Ahmanson Ranch community. “The retail-office complex looks inward, not outward, for its customers and workers,” Brackenbush said.

And the plan calls for developing a shuttle bus service and bike lanes to link the new community by Victory Boulevard to Warner Center, the nearest major employment site, Brackenbush said.

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this report.