Critics Shoot Down Schillo’s Ahmanson Trial Balloon

To Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, the plan he floated last week to revamp the 1992 Ahmanson Ranch deal is just a final attempt to give his constituents a bigger slice of benefits from the $1-billion project on the Los Angeles County border.

But by week’s end, Schillo’s colleagues on the Board of Supervisors said his proposal is a bad idea that won’t fly.

“It’s dead on arrival,” Supervisor John Flynn said. “The whole rationale for voting for this project in the first place was that 10,000 acres were going into open space. Now we’d lose 5,000 acres. I’m not going to vote for it.”

Other critics called his plan a campaign stunt that would allow the Ahmanson Land Co. to sidestep a commitment to dedicate 4,700 acres as parkland--the linchpin of the original deal backed by Gov. Pete Wilson five years ago.

“This is political grandstanding--a campaign move,” said Mary Wiesbrock, director of Agoura-based Save Open Space, a slow-growth group backing Schillo’s opponent, Vince Curtis, in the spring election.

Destined for discussion, at least, before the Board of Supervisors next month, Schillo’s idea was unveiled Monday in a news release:

Instead of buying up Runkle Ranch near Simi Valley and Corral Canyon in Malibu, two swaths of land Schillo contends would be of little benefit to his constituents, the Ventura County official said the Ahmanson company should simply donate its estimated $30-million cost to a fund to preserve open space in Thousand Oaks and Oak Park.

Or in exchange, Schillo said, Ahmanson could scale down the residential portion of its huge project from 3,050 to 2,550 homes.

Either change would benefit commuters from the Ventura County communities of Thousand Oaks and Oak Park, and the western end of the San Fernando Valley--where the project abuts Calabasas and Woodland Hills--by taking cars off the already-congested Ventura Freeway, Schillo argued.

As for the loss of the two parkland properties, he continued, L.A. County’s Corral Canyon would be of little use to Ventura County residents and Runkle Ranch is so rocky it’s of little use to builders and will remain undeveloped anyway.

Responding to critics, Schillo said Friday his proposal has nothing to do with reelection.

“That’s just stupid,” he said. “I think my job is to benefit my constituents, and that’s it. I’m trying to help the citizens of Thousand Oaks and Oak Park, and it has nothing to do with elections.”

But to analysts removed from the political fray--Flynn is Schillo’s board rival and Wiesbrock a persistent critic--the Schillo proposal appeals mostly to residents of his district. They also warn it could undercut regional efforts to create a permanent wildlife corridor from Santa Clarita to the Pacific Ocean, ring the San Fernando Valley with parkland and separate the urban sprawl of Los Angeles from semirural Ventura County.

“He’s up for reelection next year, so it’s good for him, but it’s not good for the environment,” said Ventura-based planning expert Bill Fulton, who has written about the Ahmanson project.

Touted by state officials as the largest parkland acquisition in decades, the Ahmanson project was approved by Ventura County supervisors 4 to 1 in a departure from growth-control policies that generally force construction of new communities within existing cities or next to them.

Instead, the Ahmanson project--with its thousands of homes, a town center, two schools, two golf courses and a hotel--was approved at the counties’ border, in an area planned for open space. Even some environmental groups expressed support because Ahmanson and comedian Bob Hope, an area property owner and early Ahmanson partner, agreed to turn over 9,949 ranch acres to the public.

Now, after resolving the last of 15 lawsuits challenging the project, Ahmanson is back at the bargaining table with Hope’s representatives and taking other steps to finally get the project built.

Under the 1992 agreement, Ahmanson must still buy Hope’s 4,369-acre Runkle Ranch and his 339-acre Corral Canyon parcel and turn them over to park agencies before it can pull grading permits and begin construction.

In a side deal with Hope, park agencies have already purchased two of the Hope properties promised them in the Ahmanson deal--the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch near Oak Park and 300-acre Liberty Canyon near Calabasas--for $26.7 million. Ahmanson itself would deed 2,633 acres on its ranch to the public.

It was the renewed negotiations with Hope in recent months, Schillo said, that started him thinking about changing the plan to better suit his constituents.

“Runkle Ranch is good for a billy goat, up and down. I don’t know if that’s a public benefit because a few people would be hiking on it,” Schillo said. “So I said, ‘Wow, this deal’s going to happen, so let’s see if I can come up with something to reduce its impact.’ We were being short-changed here as far as its impact on us.”

The irony is that Schillo’s argument echoes those of Los Angeles County communities in lawsuits to stop or shrink the project. The communities argued they would bear the brunt of the project’s traffic and smog, while it would funnel $35 million over 30 years to Ventura County’s general fund.

Schillo, a Thousand Oaks councilman when the project was approved, also opposed it years ago, and last week voiced his reservations anew.

“I think $25 million to $30 million spent in Thousand Oaks and Oak Park is better than spending that money on one parcel in L.A. County and one that’s never going to be developed in Ventura County,” he said.

City and county planners, however, said last week all parcels larger than 40 acres in Thousand Oaks and unincorporated Oak Park have already been approved for construction.

“Oak Park is completely built out, and all the open-space lands have already been acquired,” county planning section manager Bruce Smith said. “To my knowledge, Mr. Schillo has had no contact with the planning division regarding this issue.”

Schillo, however, said Ahmanson’s millions could be spent on small parcels to complete the broken ring of hiking, bicycle and equestrian trials that surround Thousand Oaks.

Or the money could be used, for instance, to buy development rights from owners in the 2,400-acre Tierra Rejada greenbelt that separates Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark, he said.

“Saying it’s a greenbelt doesn’t mean it can’t be developed,” Schillo said. A golf course developer contacted him recently about that very subject, he said.

Nor did Schillo exempt approved subdivisions from consideration for purchase.

“There is no a doubt in my mind that there are parcels in Thousand Oaks for this,” he said. “If it’s not built on, it’s available for purchase and that’s what I’m looking for.”

Schillo would also favor shifting some of Ahmanson’s cash to Oak Park to reduce class size at schools affected by the Ahmanson project, he said.

He said he would leave decisions on exactly how to spend the Ahmanson millions to a 12-person committee to be appointed by the supervisors, if they have any interest in the proposal at all.

So far, however, the other supervisors don’t seem to be.

Simi Valley-based Judy Mikels said her predecessor, Vicky Howard, favored the deal in part because it would keep an L.A. County landfill out of Runkle Ranch. Although Schillo insisted sanitation district officials are no longer interested in the site, officials said Friday the canyon ranked among the top four of more than 100 sites analyzed in the late 1980s.

Others involved in the original Ahmanson deal also said they oppose any alteration.

A spokesman for the Wilson administration said the state Resources Agency would like to see the project built as approved.

“We’re still hoping that the original 1992 supervisors’ agreement . . . is still going to happen,” said Jim Youngson of the Resources Agency. “And that’s what we’re expecting.”

At Schillo’s request, county lawyers are analyzing the proposal for potential legal problems. The county would at least have to hold a set of new hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, amend its agreement with Ahmanson and rewrite its statement of “overriding considerations” that justified changing the county’s master plan, planner Smith said.

“And it may have to be something more substantive than that,” he added. “Of course, [Ahmanson] would have to make application to us for that.”

Mary Trigg, spokeswoman for Ahmanson, said the company is interested in Schillo’s proposal, but prefers to buy Hope’s properties as promised so it can move forward with construction as quickly as possible.

But if that option fails, she said, the company would consider Schillo’s recommendation that Ahmanson donate $25 million to $30 million to a trust. The amount seems reasonable, she said. But the company has little interest in reducing the size of the project, she added.

Trigg said Ahmanson is discussing construction deals with several builders.

Indeed, a source close to Ahmanson said the company is far better off closing the deal with Hope than reopening discussion before the Board of Supervisors.

“You open that EIR,” the source said, “and you’ve got Mary Wiesbrock just waiting to hold you up in court a couple more years.”

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Ahmanson Ranch Deal

The linchipin to the 1992 deal allowing a 3,050-dwelling rsort community on Ahmanson Ranch was the dedication of 10,000 acres of public parkland. Now, Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo is proposing that about 4,700 acres on Runkle Ranch near Simi Valley and at Corral Canyon in Malibu be exempted from the deal in exchange for 500 fewer houses or a $25-million to $30-million contribution to preserve open space in Thousand Oaks and Oak Park.