Critics Want New Study for Ahmanson Ranch

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should order developers to reexamine the environmental effects of the massive Ahmanson Ranch project before allowing the proposed 3,050-home development to be built, elected officials and residents argued Saturday.

Residents from the west San Fernando Valley and Ventura County joined activists and area politicians at a public hearing to ask the Corps for a new environmental impact study. The 2,800-acre Ventura County development is next to Los Angeles County, which would bear the brunt of the added traffic.

The hearing drew Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and city council members from Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

Representatives from developer Ahmanson Land Co., a subsidiary of Washington Mutual, and several business groups supporting the project also spoke at the hearing. But the crowd of nearly 500 people that packed the Agoura Hills-Calabasas Community Center frequently jeered their statements.

Each of the politicians at the hearing asked Washington Mutual to undertake a new and broad reevaluation of Ahmanson Ranch, calling the original 1992 environmental report inadequate and out of date. They cited concerns about increased traffic on the Ventura Freeway, water flow problems and the recent discovery of two threatened species--the California red-legged frog and the San Fernando Valley spineflower--as reasons for a new report.

“The basic plan is: Scrape up the land where the spineflower grows and dump the dirt on the frog,” Sherman said of the proposal. “We’re going to need a complete environmental impact statement in order to evaluate this project.”

Yaroslavsky said extra environmental oversight was needed because the project could damage Malibu Creek and surrounding canyons.

“This is our Yosemite Valley,” Yaroslavsky said. “This is our Yellowstone.”

Another environmental study could considerably slow plans for the project.

Washington Mutual representatives said that if the Corps of Engineers wants an additional environmental study, it should be focused on water issues only.

Other environmental concerns about the project should be handled by Ventura County, which would authorize any building plans, said Steven Weston, an attorney for Washington Mutual.

The environmental impact report on Ahmanson Ranch was released in 1992, and Ventura County supervisors approved the project that year. The proposed development--which would include a golf course, a hotel and a 400,000-square-foot commercial center--has been the subject of a tempestuous legal and public debate. Although the project is in the Simi Hills, all of its outgoing roads are in Los Angeles County.

The project is expected to fill several tributaries of East Las Virgenes Creek, which would require a permit from the Corps of Engineers, which regulates construction affecting coastal and inland waters and wetlands.

Washington Mutual said both the red-legged frog and the spineflower would be protected.

Written testimony about the project will be collected by the Corps of Engineers in the next 10 days. It remained unclear Saturday when the agency would reach its decision about a possible new study.