Bank Takes Brunt of Ahmanson Ads

Opponents of Ventura County’s Ahmanson Ranch development have stepped up their campaign by launching a series of radio attack ads against Washington Mutual Bank, parent company of the land developer.

The ads refer to Washington Mutual as “America’s environmental enemy,” and call on Southern California customers of the nation’s largest savings and loan to withdraw their money to protest the Ahmanson Ranch development to be built just west of the San Fernando Valley.

“Washington Mutual is planning to develop Ahmanson Ranch by bulldozing 45 million cubic yards of dirt, uprooting ancient oak trees, putting thousands of cars on the already jammed 101 Freeway and adding hundreds of tons of pollutants to our air,” says the ad’s announcer.

“The project is opposed by environmental groups, elected officials and local cities, but this out-of-state bank just won’t listen. You can help stop this Southland disaster.”

The ads, which began airing on KNX-AM (1070) on Monday, are funded by the nonprofit group Save Open Space/Santa Monica Mountains through tax-deductible donations, said Mary Weisbrock, director of the organization, which has 400 people on its mailing list.

“We have to do this,” she said. “This is the only way we can save the ranch now.”

The Ahmanson Ranch proposal, approved in 1992 but stalled ever since by lawsuits, calls for construction of 3,050 homes, two championship golf courses and a retail complex just north of Calabasas. The development is expected to increase local traffic by as many as 45,000 cars a day.

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The planned community, which would house an estimated 10,000 residents, has come under fire from critics concerned that much of the traffic and pollution it creates will be dumped into Los Angeles County while Ventura County reaps the property sales and tax revenues. Other opponents say the project will eat up prized open space.

Meanwhile, endangered species of wildflowers and frogs have been found on the 2,800-acre parcel, prompting environmentalists and the developer to call for more studies, which are now being conducted.

Questions about whether the nearby Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory just west of Chatsworth contaminated the Ahmanson land also have been raised, sparking yet more studies.

Laden with sound effects that contrast the sound of babbling streams with the roar of bulldozers, the radio ads said the ranch is the pristine home of endangered species, “5,000 acres of oaks and rolling grassland . . . “

“We’re not impressed,” counters Washington Mutual spokesman Tim McGarry. “We really don’t think that many listeners will be either. The ad is full of overheated rhetoric that few people are likely to find credible.”

McGarry said the Ahmanson Land Co. has created roughly 10,000 acres of public open space through land sales and donations to public agencies, a condition of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in approving the project eight years ago. Because of that, the Ahmanson project is a good balance between protecting open space and providing much-needed housing to the area, he said.

McGarry didn’t expect the ads would prompt many customers to boycott the savings and loan and vowed his company is “committed to this project.”

“We’re going to continue communicating the benefits of the project to the public and it will be built,” he said.

Weisbrock said the advertisement is a last-ditch effort to gain public support in the wake of her group’s unsuccessful attempts to stop the project. Legal challenges have been defeated in court and the developer is proceeding with its plans despite ardent opposition from environmentalists, community groups and politicians, she said.

“This is it. We have to go after the jugular and that’s going after their public image,” she said.

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Weisbrock would not say how much money has been raised for the radio ads, or how much they cost, but a KNX employee said such ads cost an average of about $500 per spot.

The ad is scheduled to be broadcast three times today and it will continue to air through Feb. 26, said KNX account executive Mark Pennington. The ad will run about 40 times during the campaign, he said.

Weisbrock said donations for the campaign have come from members of the business community, retirees and activists as far away as San Rafael.

“This is expensive,” she said. “We’re in a battle with a multibillion-dollar company.”