Wilson Joins Dispute Over Ahmanson : Development: Governor’s top planning adviser sends a letter urging Calabasas to OK a traffic plan.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s office has joined in the “border wars” that have erupted at the Los Angeles-Ventura county line over the regional traffic plan for the giant Ahmanson Ranch housing project just north of Calabasas.

Lee Grissom, Wilson’s top planning official, recently sent a letter urging the city of Calabasas to accept the Ahmanson traffic plan, which calls for extending a four-lane roadway through the Los Angeles County community.

“Regardless of whether or not the city supports development of the Ahmanson Ranch, and I recognize that it is a controversial project, Calabasas has an obligation to reflect in its general plan the regional transportation needs represented by that project,” Grissom wrote in the July 26 letter.

Calabasas officials said they were outraged both by Grissom’s letter and by the governor’s involvement in the proposed 3,050-home project. The city is one of nine plaintiffs, including Los Angeles County, that have sued Ventura County to block development of the mini-city.

“The governor is supposed to be taking care of state business, not local business,” said Councilman Marvin Lopata. “To think that he would take sides with a developer without understanding what all the issues are just rattles me. It’s very disturbing to see that.”

Grissom could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But Antero Rivasplata of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research said that Ahmanson representatives had met with officials in his Sacramento office last month. He said they were concerned that Calabasas had ignored Ahmanson’s traffic plans in the city’s General Plan, a guide for future development that is set for final approval Sept. 6.

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Soon after the meeting, Grissom sent his letter to Calabasas officials, Rivasplata said.

He stressed that the governor’s office was only suggesting that the city take into account Ahmanson’s plans “and was not dictating to them that they have to do this.”

Indeed, there is nothing the governor’s office can do to force the city to comply with the request, Rivasplata said.

Mary Trigg, a spokeswoman for the Ahmanson Land Co., said that Ahmanson officials had taken their concerns directly to Grissom because they felt that they had been ignored by the city of Calabasas. But she said that officials did not ask for any specific action to be taken.

“We don’t have any control over what that office does,” she said.

Councilman Lopata said the proposed Thousand Oaks Boulevard extension would cut directly through a residential neighborhood and dump more than 15,000 cars a day onto the roadway. He said the traffic issue has sparked “border wars” between Ventura County and neighboring Los Angeles County communities.

“Ventura County didn’t even take into account that Calabasas even existed when it approved this project,” Lopata said.

Calabasas Mayor Dennis Washburn agreed. “We suffer all of the consequences and Ventura County gets all of the benefits and economic return.”

An attorney for Ventura County declined to comment because of pending litigation.

In response to Grissom’s letter, the city has recommended that the Ahmanson Land Co. consider two other alternative routes that would bypass residential neighborhoods. But both of those routes would require additional environmental review, which Ahmanson has consistently rejected.

Ventura County supervisors approved the Ahmanson project in December, 1992, on the condition that the developer turn over to park agencies 10,000 acres of mountain land--most of it owned by entertainer Bob Hope. So far, only about 3,000 acres, including Hope’s 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch, have been acquired as parkland.

At one point, when the deal appeared to be falling apart, Wilson intervened, bringing all the parties to work out a compromise. Wilson said at the time the deal became a state issue because it involved potential state parkland.

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Ahmanson, which plans to dedicate 2,633 acres of its ranch as part of the open space, must deliver two other Hope properties, totaling about 4,700 acres, to park agencies before it can proceed with its development.

After supervisors approved the project, the Ahmanson Land Co. and Ventura County were hit by a flurry of lawsuits from environmental groups and surrounding communities, including Calabasas, the city of Malibu and Los Angeles County over environmental concerns. The cases were eventually consolidated into one.

Although a judge ruled last year that Ventura County had complied with all state environmental laws when it approved the Ahmanson project, the case has since been appealed. A ruling on the appeal is expected any day.