Court Rejects Bid to Halt Housing Project

Dismissing claims that the Ahmanson Ranch site could have been contaminated by materials from the nearby Rocketdyne rocket-testing facility, a state appeals court has rejected an environmental group’s appeal to stop the huge development.

Mary Weisbrock, one of the founders of the environmental group Save Open Space, said the activists will probably take their case to the state Supreme Court. She said the 16-page decision written by 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Paul Coffey overlooked two important issues.

“He ignored the Rocketdyne issue, and he ignored the endangered species issue,” Weisbrock said. “He refused to look at any possibility of contamination at Rocketdyne.”

Proposed as a 3,050-home community in easternmost Ventura County, Ahmanson Ranch would back up against the facility near Simi Valley.

In its appeal--one of a long series of legal obstacles thrown up by local groups to stop the mini-city--Save Open Space argued that chemical and even radioactive waste could have blown over from Rocketdyne, contaminating the ground on Ahmanson Ranch. Rocketdyne and Ahmanson Ranch officials say that the environmentalists have no grounds for that claim.

The group also argued that a tiny endangered fish, the Tidewater goby, would be harmed by the development. The headwaters of Malibu Creek, where the fish have been found, are within the Ahmanson Ranch development area. Neither claim swayed the panel of judges.

Ahmanson Ranch officials, who have fought numerous court battles since the development was approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 1992, said they were pleased by the court victory, but still have tough legal issues remaining before the project will go forward.

These include gaining access through the city of Calabasas and receiving permits to remove oak trees and widen Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Los Angeles County.

“We are still concentrating on the remaining litigation,” said Mary Trigg, the spokeswoman for Ahmanson Ranch. “But this certainly is one more thing that clears the way for the ranch.”