Board Asked to Put Ahmanson-Jordan Plan on Fast Track : Growth: Two supervisors worry that the county risks losing the opportunity to obtain 10,000 acres of mountain property for public parkland.

Two members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors are urging the panel to conduct a speedy review of a proposal to combine the massive Ahmanson and Jordan Ranch projects at one location near Simi Valley.

Supervisors Maria VanderKolk and John K. Flynn warn that if the board fails to act quickly, it may lose an opportunity to obtain more than 10,000 acres of mountain property for public parkland, which has been offered as part of the deal.

Because of the special circumstances surrounding the proposed development, VanderKolk said, the board should put the review on a fast track.

The five-member panel will decide Tuesday just how quickly it can decide about the 2,600-house combined project. Under the options that the board will be considering, the review could take as little as 10 months or as long as 17 months.

“I am sure we can find some way to expedite this without circumventing the public review process,” Flynn said. “If the board is really interested in this project, which I think they are, it will find a way to move things along.”

Under the development proposal, 750 houses and a PGA golf course initially planned for the Jordan Ranch would instead be constructed on the Ahmanson Ranch in the rugged hills just west of the Los Angeles County line. The Ahmanson Land Co. would build another 1,850 houses and a town center with 400,000 square feet of offices and stores, as previously planned.

In return, entertainer Bob Hope, who had been planning to develop his Jordan Ranch with Potomac Investment Associates, has agreed to sell 7,363 acres of mountain property in Los Angeles and Ventura counties to park agencies for a below-market $29.5 million. Ahmanson Land Co. has agreed to give another 3,025 acres of its 5,477-acre ranch to the National Park Service.

VanderKolk, who proposed the joint venture between Ahmanson and Potomac, said she is worried that because of the worsening economy, state and federal money earmarked for the proposed parkland could dry up if the board does not act quickly.

“We need to take advantage of this marvelous opportunity and not let state funds and federal funds slip through our fingers,” VanderKolk said. “We need to be leaders in this and make this happen.”

Flynn agreed. “There’s about $30 million worth of public land here,” he said. “That’s a tremendous boost to Ventura County to get this amount of open space in perpetuity.”

Supervisors Maggie Erickson Kildee and Vicky Howard both said they are impressed with the development proposal. But both said they did not feel comfortable commenting on what action they might take because they had not had a chance to review a staff report on the issue. Supervisor Susan K. Lacey was unavailable for comment.

The staff report gives three options:

* Supervisors could continue with regular planning procedures. An environmental report on the combined project would have to be revised and completed before the County Planning Commission could hold a public hearing. It would take five to six months to revise the environmental document and another year before the board could actually vote on the project.

* The board could hold a conceptual hearing on the project within 30 days. This would save time because the board would not need a certified environmental document to approve the project in concept. Also, there would be no need for a Planning Commission hearing.

If the board were to approve the project in concept, its staff could begin preparing the revised environmental report as well as the requested zone change and development agreement. Under this plan, the project could come before the board within 10 to 12 months.

* Under the third option, the board could approve a zone change and development agreement within the next six months. If approval is granted, the board’s staff would begin working on a revised environmental report. Although the review for the project would take 14 to 16 months, under this plan the developer would be given some guarantees within the first six months about what he could expect to build.

Donald Brackenbush, president of the Ahmanson Land Co., said it has been three years since work began on the environmental document and five years since Ahmanson first proposed developing its ranch. For this reason, he said the project should be processed as quickly as possible.

Still, not everyone is happy with the proposal to put all of the development on the Ahmanson Ranch.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus has said she would try to block the combined project because she is concerned that the massive development will increase traffic on four-lane Victory Boulevard in her San Fernando Valley district.

Brackenbush said the roadway would not be overloaded. He said Ahmanson plans to develop bikeways and a shuttle bus service to link the new community by Victory Boulevard to Warner Center, the nearest major employment site.

He said the developer also is talking with companies who allow their employees to telecommute--or work at home--about locating satellite offices at Ahmanson as part of its business center.

However, Joy Nuell, Picus’ spokeswoman, said the councilwoman has heard these proposals before and is not convinced that they will work.

“That’s developers’ talk,” Nuell said. “They can’t say how many people are going to be telecommuting. It’s unenforceable and it’s unpredictable.”

Brackenbush said that if all else failed, the developer would simply gate the community to keep commuters from Ventura County from using the roadway through the development to get to the San Fernando Valley.

Mary Wiesbrock, a director of Save Open Space, the Agoura Hills-based environmental group, said even this strategy would not keep heavy traffic off Victory Boulevard or the Ventura Freeway.

“It’s a joke,” she said. “Are they going to live in a cocoon?”

Wiesbrock said she would prefer to see the development moved off Ahmanson Ranch and closer to an already populated area.

“It should be part of a city,” she said. “Since Simi Valley supported the (Jordan Ranch project) from the beginning, it would be a logical site.” In addition to increased traffic congestion, Wiesbrock said, the project would have devastating effects on air quality. She said 300 to 400 mature oak trees would have to be removed and an estimated 30 million to 40 million cubic yards of dirt would be graded.

“Forty million cubic feet is massive,” she said. “They’re going to totally rearrange the hills.”

Wiesbrock urged county supervisors not to take any shortcuts in reviewing the proposal. Gov. Pete Wilson and U.S. Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. are strong supporters of the land deal, so the money to buy the mountain property is practically guaranteed, she said, and the funds could be held in a trust until the review is over.

VanderKolk said she understands Wiesbrock’s concerns but that she is ignoring the benefits that will also result.

“There is going to be impact on oak trees, air quality and grading,” she said, “but there is also going to be 17 square miles of open space that will never be impacted. There are going to be so many benefits for the public that I feel this is an overriding consideration.”

VanderKolk said she and Picus will meet today to discuss her concerns about traffic.

Flynn said he thinks that some compromise can be reached.

“I think we have to look at this as a regional issue,” he said. “That’s the way I’m looking at it.”