Project Approval Is a Jurisdictional Mishap

When early settlers first drew boundaries between counties, they couldn’t have foreseen the havoc in the making for Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

They drew a line that put the land we now call Ahmanson Ranch in the southeastern corner of Ventura County. Today, a developer has obtained approval from Ventura County to build a project that can only be accessed from, and imposes tremendous adverse impacts on, Los Angeles County.

As the Ahmanson Ranch project is proposed, all vehicles traveling to or from the development would flow down Victory Boulevard into West Hills or down Thousand Oaks Boulevard into Calabasas and onto the Ventura Freeway. Once completed, the project would produce an estimated 45,000 additional vehicle trips per day onto these roadways.

Land-use planning, zoning and building permits are all functions of local government. Not surprisingly, however, when one city or county makes a decision about a project that will almost entirely affect another local jurisdiction, mistakes can be made.

The 1992 approval of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch project by Ventura County is a clear example of this jurisdictional mishap. It represents the overdevelopment of an area that was originally zoned for rural ranchettes.

The project would occupy 2,800 acres and would include 3,050 homes, 400,000 square feet of commercial and office space, a hotel and two golf courses.

The total build-out of the project would take approximately 14 years and involve grading 40 million to 45 million cubic yards of earth, more than 50 times the volume of the Rose Bowl. Just moving this earth would involve hundreds of large truckloads of dirt every day for many years, if it were trucked off the site.

It’s no wonder that the project is actively opposed by the Sierra Club, Heal the Bay, the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation and several new organizations created primarily to battle this development. The project is also actively opposed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick and the entire Calabasas City Council.

Although land-use planning and zoning are managed by local government, I cannot be blind to the effect this project would have on my constituents in the west San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and the Conejo Valley. Neither can I be blind to the adverse effect it would have on the Malibu Creek watershed, the western reaches of Santa Monica Bay and several sensitive plant and animal species.

This is why I am going to do everything possible to make sure that federal agencies strictly enforce all of the environmental laws relevant to the project. At least this will make sure that our nation’s environmental interests are protected to the full extent of the law. At best, we can hope that this project, as it is currently proposed, will not go forward.

The Army Corps of Engineers has the authority to approve the portion of the Ahmanson Ranch development that would impact waterways and wetlands. This permit process has been complicated by the recent discovery of several sensitive plant and animal species on the Ahmanson Ranch property: the California red-legged frog, an endangered species, and the San Fernando Valley spineflower, a plant that was believed extinct until it was found on Ahmanson Ranch.

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Although details about the project still have to be finalized, we can foresee that because of the sheer size and the amount of earth movement proposed, the project would seriously affect both the spineflower and the red-legged frog. It also would impact the quality of the Malibu Creek watershed, which is the largest watershed in the Santa Monica Mountains and is home to several other endangered species, including steelhead trout and the tidewater goby.

Federal law essentially prohibits agencies from issuing permits that could cause a species to become extinct. However, this protection only applies to those species on the federal endangered species list.

The red-legged frog, steelhead trout and tidewater goby have this status but the spineflower does not. This is because federal law does not provide immediate protection for species that were thought to be extinct.

I have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for placing species on the endangered species list, to put the spineflower on the list immediately. I have also made a similar request of the California Fish and Game Commission, which manages this state’s endangered species list.

In addition, in my discussions with Col. John Carroll, commander and district engineer for the Los Angeles District of the Army Corps of Engineers, and in conversations with Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, I have urged that the corps not issue any permit until it completes a full environmental impact statement.

At my request, the corps has agreed to hold a public hearing about this project. This will be at 10 a.m. Feb. 26 at the new Agoura Hills / Calabasas Community Center at 27040 Malibu Hills Road, Agoura Hills.

See you there.