Dream Project Neighbors’ Nightmare

I read with no small amount of irony the flattering article on Donald H. Brackenbush (“Ahmanson Co. President Is Close to Building a Dream,” Times Valley Edition, Feb. 22).

Brackenbush is nothing more than a self-interested environmental carpetbagger. He has the temerity to suggest, presumably with a straight face, that developing 68 “mansions” on the Ahmanson property (which would be consistent with Ventura County’s General Plan), each with “three teen-age kids with off-road motorcycles,” would create more significant environmental impacts than the 37,000 vehicle trips per day that Ahmanson has estimated the project will create.

I am a resident of Mountain View Estates, one of the nine petitioners seeking to invalidate the Ventura County Board of Supervisors’ irrational approval of the project. Our community is directly adjacent to the proposed development, separated only by an invisible line between Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Nobody will see, hear, feel, taste or smell the consequences of this environmental nightmare more than we will.

We had requested, prior to filing our petition, to meet directly with Brackenbush to discuss measures to mitigate the project’s impacts. He chose to ignore us. Is this the “ever-so-courteous resistance” to demands that he will not accommodate?

The development envisioned by Brackenbush is an urban monster that Ahmanson and Ventura County want to shove down the throats of all of us living in the west San Fernando Valley.

Their motive is simple: greed. Brackenbush’s “dream” is our worst nightmare.

LARRY A. ROTHSTEIN

Calabasas