3 Sites in Ahmanson Deal Become Open Space

After more than a decade of on-again, off-again negotiations, false starts and legal feuds, three rustic parcels of land were declared public open space Thursday as part of a deal to develop Ahmanson Ranch.

But the announcement by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy touched off another round of legal battles, with project foes filing a new lawsuit that contends the conservancy failed to test the land for contamination from the nearby Rocketdyne field lab.

With the transfer of the final pieces of property, conservancy officials now have stewardship of nearly 10,000 acres of open space--a linchpin in Ahmanson Land Co.’s agreement to develop the billion-dollar mini-city along Ventura County’s eastern border.

“What’s significant about this isn’t just that we’re saving this land from development,” Joe Edmiston, executive director for the public conservation agency, said at ceremonies at Runkle Ranch near Simi Valley. “It’s that we’re preserving the integrity of the Santa Monica Mountains.”

The transfer of Runkle Ranch, Corral Canyon and open space owned by Ahmanson completes the developer’s requirement to dedicate the land to be forever protected and maintained as public open space.

Together with two properties already acquired, the parcels will create a stretch of virgin land running from Los Angeles County into Ventura County and spreading from the coast to the mountains.

For Ahmanson Land Co., the transfer represents the final hurdle in taking the development from the drafting table to reality, although the firm must still receive various permits before breaking ground on the 3,050-home development east of Oak Park.

As part of its 1992 agreement with the county, Ahmanson was committed to acquiring the 10,000 acres of undeveloped land and turning it over to the conservancy before moving ahead with the planned community.

Ahmanson dedicated 2,633 acres of its own ranch property to the conservancy, and park agencies also purchased the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch near Oak Park and 300-acre Liberty Canyon for about $26 million.

In January, Ahmanson struck a deal with entertainer Bob Hope to purchase the final two properties--Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon--for $30 million. But transfer of the land to the conservancy had been on hold until all paperwork and legal agreements could be made.

Although Thursday’s transfer was a foregone conclusion, it struck a blow to critics who have lobbied hard to have the Ahmanson Ranch development stopped.

“Certainly things have gotten more narrow and there aren’t as many avenues left to attack this project,” said Vince Curtis of Save Open Space. “But we’re going to file this lawsuit and win.”

Curtis and attorneys representing opponents of the project contend in their suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that the conservancy should have conducted soil and water tests to ensure that the properties are safe before assuming ownership of the land.

“Even though they say it’s safe, how do they even know?” he added. “They said they were going to do this and they haven’t, and it needs to be done.”

Conservancy officials say that the tests were conducted and that the properties are safe.

“They are absolutely dead wrong,” conservancy official Laurie Collins said. “There is no contamination on the properties, and this is just a pie-in-the-sky attempt to stop an important land transfer.”

Officials for Washington Mutual, which is in the process of acquiring Ahmanson Land’s parent company Home Savings of America, said no time frame has been set for construction, but that the project will proceed as planned.

“Our main focus right now is the acquisition of [Home Savings],” said Tim McGarry, Washington Mutual spokesman. “But Washington Mutual has reviewed plans for the Ahmanson Ranch project and we intend to move forward with it.”

McGarry added that the merger should be completed by the beginning of next month. When that is complete, executives will turn their attention toward the project and establish a tentative date for breaking ground.

The Ahmanson Ranch development has been one of the most important and contentious land-use issues in Ventura County’s history.

It has been the subject of lawsuits filed by the city of Calabasas, which fears that the development will dump all its traffic on the city’s small streets. Los Angeles County officials also opposed the project because they feared it would give Ventura County all the benefits, such as increased tax revenue, while leaving the neighboring county to deal with costly impacts such as increased traffic and pollution.

As planned, the development would include 3,050 homes, a 400,000-square-foot retail and commercial center, two championship golf courses and a 300-room resort hotel spread over 2,408 acres.

Although its critics call the deal an invitation for developers to pave over the county’s bucolic charm, Edmiston believes that the trade-off was more than adequate.

“There are still many well-meaning folks who think this is a horrible deal,” he said. “But our mission at the end of the day is to see that there is a line of continuous open space. . . . I don’t think that there’s anyone who could stand here and not think that developing 3,000 acres didn’t do a tremendous job in preserving 10,000.”

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Ahmanson Ranch Project

The final pieces of a deal between developer Ahmanson Land Co. and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy fell into place Thursday when the developer announced it was turning over Runkle Ranch near Simi Valley and Corral Canyon in Malibu to the parklands group. The deal, which in total provided the conservancy with more than 10,000 acres, needed to be fulfilled before the developer could continue with its proposed Ahmanson Ranch community.