Ahmanson Input Deadline Is Pushed Back

Responding to pressure from state agencies, an advisory panel considering the Ahmanson Ranch housing development agreed Wednesday to extend through mid-June its deadline for receiving public comments.

The 4-1 vote by the Ventura County Environmental Report Review Committee followed a three-hour hearing during which opponents continued to raise long-standing concerns. Among the questions are how traffic, water and wildlife would be affected by the 3,050-home project planned at the border of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

The extension of the May 1 deadline gives the regional water board, state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until June 19 to weigh in.

Supervisors approved the project in 1992, but it has been slowed by lawsuits and the discovery of a rare frog and a species of flower previously thought to be extinct.