SIMI VALLEY : Planner Postpones Ahmanson Hearing

A hearing scheduled Tuesday on a proposal to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Los Angeles County 1,000 feet to the Ventura County line as part of the giant Ahmanson Ranch housing development has been continued until April 19.

Ray Ristic, a Los Angeles County regional planning hearing officer, continued the proceedings because he wanted more time to study the proposed roadway extension before making a decision.

“I want to go out and look at the site, and I also want to talk with county counsel regarding the development,” Ristic said afterward.

During the 90-minute hearing, representatives of the city of Los Angeles and Calabasas as well as several homeowner groups discussed potential traffic problems that the development would create for surrounding communities. Ahmanson Land Co. officials also spoke about steps the developer plans to take to mitigate traffic congestion.

Ahmanson wants to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Mountain Gate Drive in Los Angeles County across the Ventura County line, which would also require a permit to remove nine oak trees.

The extension would be one of two main entrances to the development, which calls for 3,050 dwellings, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial space to be built in the rolling hills southeast of Simi Valley.

The Ahmanson project, approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in December, 1992, has been stalled because of lawsuits filed by Los Angeles County and others who would be affected by the project.

A Ventura County judge, however, earlier this month upheld the Board of Supervisors’ decision to approve the project and ruled that the development’s environmental impact report met all state guidelines. Los Angeles County and the other eight plaintiffs in the suit are considering filing an appeal.