Board Clashes Over Ahmanson Plan

Growth politics flared anew on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors Friday, with two supervisors condemning a third for attempting to bring an environmental review of the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch suburb directly to the board for a vote.

Supervisor Steve Bennett said controversy surrounding the Ahmanson Ranch project near Calabasas is so pitched that a scheduled environmental review by county staff members should instead be done by the supervisors.

“When you have big controversial issues like this, we should be doing the filtering right at the start,” Bennett said. “We as a board can say, ‘Hey, we want you to check this out’ before this comes back to the board for a final vote.”

But two of Bennett’s colleagues accused the slow-growth advocate of trying to politicize the process.

“We have professional people in our county that we pay to evaluate the technical aspects of the project,” said Supervisor Frank Schillo, whose district includes Ahmanson Ranch.

“What Mr. Bennett is trying to do is subvert that process and make this a political issue. It’s really tampering with the system.”

Supervisor Kathy Long agreed the board should remain hands-off.

“This is a very focused, technical review,” Long said. “So I’d like the Environmental Report Review Committee to sit independent of any political pressure and let them do their work.”

Supervisors are expected to vote on the matter Tuesday. Supervisor John Flynn said he was unsure which way he would go, and Supervisor Judy Mikels was unavailable for comment.

The six-member Environmental Report Review Committee is made up of county planners and other staff members. They are scheduled on April 17 to review a follow-up environmental study ordered after biologists found threatened frog and flower species on the Ahmanson Ranch property three years ago. An initial environmental analysis of the housing project was approved in 1992.

Ahmanson Ranch opponents last month requested that the board invoke a rarely used rule that permits supervisors to sit as the review panel when there is “substantial controversy.” Ahmanson fits that category, Bennett said.

He said the county set a precedent by applying that rule when the project’s first environmental study was approved.

“You ought to have the ultimate policymakers hearing this stuff right off the bat,” Bennett said.

Environmental studies typically are reviewed by the committee and the county Planning Commission before coming to the Board of Supervisors for final approval, said Tom Berg, director of the county’s planning division. A public hearing is held each step of the way, Berg said.

There is no good reason to divert from that process now, Berg said. A spokesman for Washington Mutual, developer of Ahmanson Ranch, agreed with the planning director.

“We’re not trying to short-circuit the public’s ability to comment and we’re not trying to telescope the reviews,” spokesman Tim McGarry said. “Let’s let the process unfold.”

The planned suburb has withstood more than a dozen lawsuits by opponents over the past decade. But opposition to the 2,800-acre residential, retail and office development has gained strength in recent months as well-connected activists revived a campaign to stop the project.

Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, co-chaired by Hollywood director Rob Reiner and HBO executive Chris Albrecht, has vowed to halt the project regardless of county supervisors’ decisions.

The city of Calabasas and a growing group of Los Angeles politicians and state legislators are also opposed.

Attorney Katherine Stone, representing Calabasas, said opponents are concerned their comments won’t be taken seriously by the Board of Supervisors if the environmental document has already been approved by two panels.

“The concern is that the final [study] will basically be rubber-stamped,” Stone said. “At that level, the decisions have already been made.”