County Moves Forward on Ahmanson Ranch Plan

Despite strong opposition from residents in neighboring Los Angeles County, supervisors in Ventura County on Tuesday voted to move forward with a controversial 3,050-home project at Ahmanson Ranch.

The board’s action denied an appeal by the group Save Open Space, which had appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of the project.

The vote was 2 to 1 with Supervisor Susan Lacey dissenting and Supervisors John Flynn and Kathy Long absent. Flynn and Long were at a Los Angeles Board of Supervisors meeting, where they pleaded unsuccessfully with the board to deny the massive 21,615-home Newhall Ranch housing development.

“The irony is not lost on me that here we are begging supervisors in Los Angeles not to ‘L.A.-ize’ Ventura County,” Lacey said of her vote. “And here are residents of our sister county to the south asking us not to do the same thing to their communities.”

In addition to anticipated traffic and air pollution the housing development would create, opponents told supervisors the soil at the 2,800-acre project along the county’s eastern border contains toxic chemicals.

Representatives of Save Open Space showed supervisors a study conducted by a Santa Paula chemist who found traces of toxic chemicals such as arsenic, magnesium and sulfur in soil samples at the site.

The group maintains chemicals from the adjacent Rocketdyne field lab, a former testing facility for rockets, have seeped into ground water and pose a danger to the public. Members of the group, made up mainly of San Fernando Valley and Agoura Hills residents, paid $2,886 to have the study completed earlier this month.

“We want to make sure that no baby or hiker who is playing or hiking on the dirt there gets ill,” Save Open Space Director Mary Wiesbrock told supervisors. “You are the lead agency who can determine whether this goes through. You need to protect the public.”

Wiesbrock and others implored supervisors to conduct an independent health-risk study on the soil before considering approval of the massive housing project, which would include 400,000 square feet of commercial space, a 300-room hotel, two golf courses and two schools.

“You will be liable if a child gets leukemia,” Wiesbrock said. “Please, people’s lives are at stake.”

Woodland Hills attorney Rosemary Woodlock said Ahmanson Land Co. has the right to extract up to 260 million gallons of water per year from the 10,000 acres of open space Ahmanson was required to dedicate to a conservancy, which will be protected as open space as part of the development deal.

According to the land transfer agreement, Ahmanson Land has exclusive rights to the water and may construct pipelines or wells on the property, Woodlock said. The company also has the right to sell the water or water rights to anyone, she said.

Chairwoman Judy Mikels was unmoved by the group’s testimony on the soil study.

“It’s been dumped here at the last minute without certification and without expert comment,” she said. “We need to stay on track and stay focused.”

She said the county can conduct a soil study when the developers design the blueprints for a housing project, a process that could be completed by next summer.