Bargain Hard on Projects

Although its fiercest opponents may never raise a toast to the Ahmanson Ranch development, the rest of us can take some satisfaction in the hard-driven bargain that has finally brought nearly 10,000 acres of open space under the permanent stewardship of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

This deal shows how smart negotiating can make the necessary task of providing homes for California’s growing population work for the public good. It is in the public’s interest to negotiate hard and win maximum public benefit from those who profit from turning natural areas into neighborhoods.

The importance of such deal-sweetening concessions will continue to grow--whether the decision to allow a particular project rests with a city council, with the county Board of Supervisors (as in this case) or with the voting public (should the proposed Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives be voted into law).

That process is at the heart of the debate over the Hidden Creek Ranch development north of Moorpark. Like Ahmanson, Hidden Creek Ranch would put more than 3,000 homes in an expanse of canyons and hillsides that many people would prefer to see left vacant. Eventually, it would increase the city’s population by about one-third.

Although the three Moorpark City Council members who support the project say they are satisfied with the dowry offered by developer Messenger Investment Co., it falls short of Ahmanson standards:

* Ahmanson Ranch, as planned, would include 3,050 homes, a 400,000-square-foot retail and commercial center, two golf courses and a 300-room resort hotel spread over 2,400 acres; 10,000 more have been turned over to the Conservancy.

* Hidden Creek Ranch, as currently designed, would put 3,221 homes, a shopping center, two golf courses, three parks and two schools on about half of its 4,300-acre site, donating 2,000 acres to the city for preservation as open space. Of great big appeal to Moorpark officials, facing a $600,000 budget deficit, are monetary concessions that add up to a hefty $16,000 per unit, including $12.5 million toward construction of a Highway 118 bypass that could free the city of a major headache: the nearly 4,000 trucks a day that rumble through the middle of town. But planning and building that long-coveted bypass would cost at least twice that and probably far more--and would certainly take years.

Hidden Creek Ranch is the dominant issue in next month’s election, in which Councilman Bernardo Perez (who advocates the project) is challenging Mayor Patrick Hunter (who opposes it). The six candidates vying for two council seats are similarly polarized.

Because of questionable decisions by the council, Moorpark voters will have to wait until January to vote on SOAR, which the rest of Ventura County and five other cities will decide on in November (although a vastly diluted city-sponsored version will appear on the earlier ballot). A referendum on Hidden Creek Ranch itself will also be decided in January.

The developer has declared that killing the project after eight years of costly studies, public hearings and working with city staff would be unfair, and there is truth to that. He has vowed to sue to force the city to allow project to proceed, and that would be ugly and expensive for all concerned.

But it is quite possible that what appears to be a done deal at this point may look different after the two elections. Rather than staking out nonnegotiable positions on opposite sides of this battlefield, it would be wise for both sides to start thinking now of ways this project could be scaled down and made more palatable to the Moorpark residents who will have to live with its effects on their city.