L.A. Planning Panel Delays Vote on Trees

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission has put off a decision on a developer’s request to remove mature oak trees along a proposed road extension leading into the massive Ahmanson Ranch project in eastern Ventura County.

The planning commission voted Wednesday to delay a decision on the matter until after developer Washington Mutual submits tract maps to Ventura County officials for approval this summer, officials said. The panel is expected to take up the matter at its Oct. 13 meeting.

“This isn’t necessarily a setback,” Adrian Rodriguez, a spokesman for the developer, said Thursday. “It doesn’t mean that the project will be delayed.”

The developer, whose project sits on the far eastern edge of Ventura County east of Oak Park, but would pour traffic into western Los Angeles County--wants to move nine oak trees from a section of Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Calabasas that will eventually extend to the southern entrance of the 3,050-home project, Rodriguez said.

“We are not concerned that removing the trees will raise any environmental issues because the project itself is environmentally sensitive,” Rodriguez said. “We are proposing to remove the trees along the roadway, but we are also planning to plant 6,000 oak trees throughout the property.”

Still, elected officials contend that the project will mean increased traffic and congestion in western Los Angeles County communities.

“As things stand now, you cannot find a single local leader--particularly in Calabasas--whose level of anger at the project is anything but maximum and for good reason,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) in a telephone interview Thursday from his Washington office.