Impact of Ahmanson Project Is Detailed : Environment: A report on proposed housing development calls significant adverse effects on air quality and traffic unavoidable.

The $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch housing project in the hills of southeast Ventura County would have unavoidable and significant impacts on air quality, traffic and the area’s rural environment, says a draft environmental report released Thursday.

The project would eventually dump 37,540 cars a day onto nearby roadways, extend the blanket of smog that frequently covers the nearby San Fernando Valley and destroy mature oak trees and rare grasslands on the sprawling cattle ranch, the report says.

Its approval could also set a precedent for the development of rural open space in Ventura County, said consultants who studied the proposal for the county.

Located in the Simi Hills, the project would transform the rolling ranch into an upscale mini-city with 3,050 dwellings, a 300-room hotel, two golf courses and a town center of dozens of shops and government buildings.

Local officials said they expect no surprises as they work their way through the voluminous study of Ventura County’s most controversial housing project.

“I have known from the very beginning that there would be many significant environmental impacts from this proposal,” Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said. “You can’t avoid environmental impacts no matter what you do.”

On the other hand, she said, the Board of Supervisors must weigh what the county would get from Ahmanson in return.

VanderKolk suggested last year that Ahmanson Land Co. and developers of comic Bob Hope’s nearby Jordan Ranch consolidate their proposals at a single location as part of a deal that would turn over 10,000 acres of parkland to state and federal agencies. Hope would be paid $29.5 million for his share of the land.

In December, the supervisors put the joint project on a fast track so they can make a quick decision and retain multimillion-dollar state and federal commitments to the deal.

The supervisors, who are tentatively scheduled to make a final decision in December, would have to find “overriding considerations” to approve the project because it violates county policy that requires construction in or near cities and prohibits projects in designated open space.

The parkland deal is just such a special consideration, VanderKolk said.

But Mary Wiesbrock, a chief Ahmanson opponent, said the new study only reinforces her opinion that “this project is an environmental disaster.”

“The heart of the issue is that it’s going to put another city between the San Fernando Valley and the Conejo Valley,” said Wiesbrock, director of Agoura-based Save Open Space. “And it’s going to move the San Fernando Valley to Las Virgenes Road.”

Once alone in its opposition to the VankerKolk-spawned compromise on Ahmanson, Save Open Space has now been joined by the city of Calabasas, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus and 22 homeowner groups. Of the homeowners organizations, just Bell Canyon’s is from Ventura County.

Los Angeles County critics repeated longstanding complaints Thursday that their communities would suffer the brunt of the development’s problems, while Ventura County would reap most of its benefits.

Specifically, opponents of the project said that while property tax revenues would go straight to Ventura County coffers, traffic from the project would go straight onto Los Angeles County’s already congested streets and freeways.

Although the project is entirely within Ventura County--and would need approval from that county’s Board of Supervisors--the only roads into it are in Los Angeles County.

Ahmanson Land Co. President Donald Brackenbush said a series of road improvements will provide “enormous capacity” on nearby streets.

But nearly all of the proposed improvements would need the approval of local governments in Los Angeles County--including those of the cities of Los Angeles, Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

And officials there said they doubted that they would vote for such improvements unless they are granted a greater role in the approval process.

An aide to Picus said the Los Angeles councilwoman stands by an earlier promise to block connection of Ahmanson roads to Victory Boulevard in Woodland Hills. Picus has said she can block the connection by refusing to allow paving of a one-foot-wide strip of Victory on which the city holds the right-of-way.

Brackenbush said his company has found several ways to offset the worst impacts the county identified in 1990 when it studied a similar large-scale proposal for the same 5,433-acre ranch.

“The benefits of this project far outweigh the impacts,” Brackenbush said.

Ventura County was concerned that the project would not pay for itself in its early years, but the company has now guaranteed that it will make up for any county losses as the 20-year project gets going.

The environmental report projects that the county’s general fund will net $26 million over the next 30 years from the project. About $20 million of that would be used to subsidize community services such as libraries and police and fire protection.

Senior county planner Dennis Hawkins said that Ahmanson and the county’s consultant have tried to fix the project’s problems “to an extent that’s unprecedented in Ventura County.”

Hawkins, who oversees the project for the county, said Ahmanson has many times gone beyond the county’s 1990 suggestions.

For example, in response to complaints that its project would force road improvements in surrounding communities, Ahmanson has committed $2 million to a special road fund to be run by the county.

The fund would be the first ever created by a Ventura County developer for off-site improvements, Hawkins said.

The Ahmanson project also altered its original plan to provide more affordable housing so low-income workers at its hotel and Professional Golfers’ Assn. courses could live in the same community where they work.

Though some homes would cost $1 million, Ahmanson has proposed building 774 low-income or affordable units, whose rents and sales prices would be controlled by ordinance.

The project would introduce the first rent controls imposed in Ventura County outside of mobile home parks and government housing projects, Hawkins said.

Ahmanson also has committed to establishing the Las Virgenes Institute to assure the county that the company’s promises to replace or restore trees, grasses and natural habitats are carried out.

About 1,200 mature oaks would be lost to the project, as would 338 acres of rare needle grass. Ahmanson has committed to replacing mature oaks on a 6-to-1 ratio and smaller trees on a 5-to-1 ratio, Brackenbush said.

Ahmanson has also agreed to replace 100 acres of needle grass and to help provide ways for wildlife to pass under the Ventura Freeway from the Simi Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains.

The development would impede an important wildlife corridor, the study said. But it also noted that the 10,000 acres of parkland dedicated with the project would permanently preserve key wildlife corridors and about 12,000 oak trees.

The report emphasized how important approval of the project could be as a precedent that other developers could cite before the Board of Supervisors on other proposed projects in rural areas.

“It has that potential,” Hawkins said. “But it depends on what the supervisors do with the next project that comes down the pike.”

Proposed Ahmanson Ranch Project The draft environmental impact report assesses the effects of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch project, which would include 3,050 dwellings, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of office and commercial space on 2,800 acres. The project would be located in the Simi Hills in southeastern Ventura County on the border of Los Angeles County. Approval by Ventura County officials would trigger the donation and sale to park agencies of about 10,000 acres of mountain property for a below-market price of $29.5 million. Major negative impacts include:

An increase in traffic of 37,540 cars per day on Victory Boulevard, Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Las Virgenes Road and other nearby thoroughfares, with road widenings and other improvements to ease traffic problems.

A sweeping divergence from Ventura County’s General Plan, which currently allows a maximum of 68 dwellings on the site. Approval could set a precedent, paving the way for more urban-style projects in rural areas, with harmful effects on traffic and air quality.

Destruction of most of a prime remnant of native grasslands once common to Southern California. The success of a grassland restoration program on nearby Jordan Ranch is uncertain.

Disruption of wildlife habitat, although dedicated open space would preserve reduced wildlife migration routes.

Possible noise and view-spoiling intrusions on the Cheeseboro Canyon unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.