City Not Backing Off From Developer

Ten years of courtroom defeats have not discouraged Calabasas from pumping money into the legal battle against the huge Ahmanson Ranch development on the city’s border.

The City Council is expected to give the anti-Ahmanson effort $344,000 by next month, mostly to cover legal fees. That would bring the city’s total spending in the campaign to more than $500,000 for the fiscal year, roughly 2% of the city’s $25-million annual budget.

Mayor Janice Lee said she’s “proud Calabasas is the tip of the sword and has taken the lead in this fight.”

“The most obvious reason is we’re directly adjacent to the project,” Lee said. “It’s like a bad neighbor is moving in next door and wants to borrow the driveway.”

But some have begun to question whether Calabasas is squandering its money. They note that Ahmanson developer Washington Mutual has won all 17 lawsuits brought by Calabasas and other opponents of the 3,050-house project just across the Ventura County line.

“This battle is like the Vietnam War,” Calabasas Councilman Michael Harrison said. “No one has a handle on what we’re doing, yet the costs are getting completely out of control.”

Ahmanson opponents contend the development will clog the Ventura Freeway, destroy pristine hillsides and canyons, and kill off such endangered species as the spine flower and red-legged frog. Washington Mutual officials dismiss those assertions as scare tactics.

The lawsuits that have sought to stop the project date to when Calabasas residents voted to incorporate in 1991, after a cityhood campaign led by slow-growth advocates. The most recent court challenges cited the spine flower and red-legged frog. Others contended that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors overstepped its authority in approving the project. Other plaintiffs have included the Environmental Defense Center and Save Open Space.

Though Harrison plans to argue against the $344,000 allocation at the Jan. 2 council meeting, he expects it to be approved.

Harrison said he believes Calabasas is bearing too much of the financial burden.

“Everybody talks the talk, but no other city is proposing the equivalent of $25 from every man, woman and child in Calabasas,” he said, referring to the city’s population of about 20,000.

A Washington Mutual spokesman said no amount of spending by Calabasas will stop the development. The company describes Ahmanson as a model golf community that would be easy on the environment.

“It’s for the cities to decide what to do with their budgets,” spokesman Tim McGarry said. “But we are committed to moving forward with the ranch. Our 17-0 record should indicate something to them.”

Aligned with Calabasas are the cities of Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks, as well as Los Angeles County. None of the other cities has contributed money to the legal offensive.

But that may change. Edward Masry, the new mayor of Thousand Oaks, said he will keep his campaign promise to halt Ahmanson.

“Making the 101 into a parking lot is a definite threat to the Thousand Oaks economy,” Masry said. “Out of self-preservation, I would certainly be in favor of putting some of the city’s economic resources into the fight.”

Lee said Calabasas’ legal costs are a sound investment, even if they haven’t paid off in courtroom victory.

“This is equivalent to saving Yosemite or Yellowstone,” Lee said. “It’s about commerce and quality of life for the whole Southern California region.”