Ventura County Planners Reject Ahmanson Ranch Housing Plan : Growth: The commission’s denial of a $1-billion mini-city proposed on 2,800 acreas in the hills northwest of Calabasas sets the stage for a final vote Tuesday.

The Ventura County Planning Commission on Friday urged rejection of the $1-billion Ahmanson Ranch housing project, setting the stage for a final vote next week on the mini-city proposed for the rolling hills northwest of Calabasas.

“Ventura County does not want to become another Orange County, and chipping away at the borders is the way to do that,” Commissioner Betty Taylor said.

In a vote that project boosters expected, the commissioners recommended 4 to 1 that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors deny the application by the Ahmanson Land Co. to build a 3,050-dwelling community on 2,800 acres in the Simi Hills.

The county supervisors, who have the last word, are scheduled to take up the issue at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The majority of the supervisors has endorsed the project in concept, and it was not immediately clear Friday whether the Planning Commission’s vote will change any minds.

“If I were betting, I would bet that it could probably go 3 to 2 in favor,” said board Chairman John K. Flynn, who counts himself as the swing vote in favor. “But I’m not sure how this affects me at this point.”

Explaining their votes Friday, planning commissioners said 10,000 acres of public parkland included in the Ahmanson deal amounted to a powerful argument for approval. But most said that factor was outweighed by their fears that the project would set a precedent for development of other areas designated as open space in Ventura County.

“It does fly in the face . . . of orderly development,” Commissioner Mary Alice Henderson said.

The county’s growth-control policies generally force construction of new communities within cities or next to them.

No Ventura County city is adjacent to the sprawling 5,433-acre Ahmanson sheep ranch, though Calabasas and Los Angeles are on its eastern and southern flanks in Los Angeles County.

Ahmanson Land Co. President Donald Brackenbush left Friday’s hearing without comment. But another Ahmanson executive, Bob DeKruif, said he did not consider the vote a setback.

“Our big thing is that they didn’t put it off, at least,” DeKruif said. “We’re very optimistic.”

He has reason for optimism.

Declaring their conceptual support, the majority of the Ventura supervisors voted last December to put the project on a fast track to retain multimillion-dollar state and federal park commitments to the deal.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, a key supporter of the proposal, said Friday that the Planning Commission vote was predictable, since the commission’s role is to uphold county planning policies.

“Their role is not to look outside of General Plan policy,” VanderKolk said, stating that the decision must be made by the county supervisors because “this is a political issue that goes beyond existing rules and procedures.”

VanderKolk said she does not see the Planning Commission’s vote--or an earlier recommendation for denial by the county planning staff--as setbacks.

But she said the planners’ opposition could make a difference to other board members.

“They’ve gone back and forth on this, and now they might say, ‘Look how the Planning Commission voted,’ ” VanderKolk said. “Boy, it’s down to the wire.”

Representatives of Los Angeles County and the cities of Calabasas, Malibu and Los Angeles have expressed strong concerns that their jurisdictions will bear the brunt of the project’s traffic and smog.

Calabasas and Los Angeles officials have threatened lawsuits to stop the project or force significant reductions in its size.

Roads running into the project are all from Los Angeles County, and the streets cannot be improved as required without permission from jurisdictions across the county line, Ventura County officials have said.

Project opponents said they were heartened by the commissioners’ vote.

“We’re thrilled by this decision,” said Mary Wiesbrock, director of the Agoura-based Save Open Space. “I think it sends a clear message to the supervisors that the county’s planning guidelines need to be upheld.”

Steve Craig, environmental coordinator for the city of Calabasas, added: “It is not uncommon for the board to overturn decisions by the staff and Planning Commission, but it certainly calls into question the wisdom of an approval.”

Before their vote, planning commissioners said Ahmanson had drafted a project that is well-designed and sensitive to the environment in many ways. But they concluded that it is in the wrong place--in the middle of a 15,000-acre swatch of open space that separates the sprawl of Los Angeles County from semi-rural Ventura County.

“It’s like breaking a $100 bill into smaller denominations,” Taylor said. “It’s much easier to spend each incremental piece.”

Commissioner Robert Muraoka of Simi Valley, however, echoed the comments of many of the 69 speakers who addressed the commission in a daylong hearing Thursday.

“If this is a precedent and we can strike the same deal down the line, then it is a good precedent,” Muraoka said.

The attractive linchpin to the Ahmanson deal is the transfer of nearly 10,000 acres of private mountain land into public hands.

It was VanderKolk who suggested last year that Ahmanson and developers of comic Bob Hope’s nearby Jordan Ranch consolidate their proposal at one location.

As part of the deal, Hope would be paid $29.5 million. He would turn over 7,316 acres and Ahmanson would donate another 2,633 acres, all located on ranches in the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains.

The new parklands would link wildlife corridors that stretch from the mountains near Santa Clarita to the Pacific Ocean.

But the project would also mean that 1,900 acres that is now open space would be occupied by the new mini-city, planners have said. And project opponents have argued that Ventura County can block urban development on nearly all of the 10,000 acres if officials have the political will.

The project would transform part of Ahmanson Ranch into an upscale community with 8,700 residents, a 300-room hotel, two professional-quality golf courses and a town center of dozens of shops and government buildings.

The project has drawn its greatest support from business interests, labor unions, the construction industry, park officials and Gov. Pete Wilson.

The chambers of commerce in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Camarillo all support the project, which would create 500 construction jobs and 1,760 permanent jobs, they said.

Opponents include the Conejo and Angeles chapters of the Sierra Club. Twenty-eight homeowner groups--nearly all in Los Angeles County--also oppose it. And a group called Stop Ahmanson Ranch has presented Ventura County officials with a petition with 1,515 signatures urging denial.

* AHMANSON BACKED FOR SOKA: B9