Judges hear Ahmanson appeal

Acorn Staff Writer


Ahmanson Ranch opponents are asking the Ventura County Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision that reportedly gives developers permission to usurp water rights for the 3,050-home development.


Save Open Space, the Agoura Hills organization doing battle with Ahmanson Ranch, lost a 1999 lawsuit on the water rights’ issue in Superior Court. SOS charged that Ahmanson didn’t complete the transfer of 2,600 acres of open space in upper Las Virgenes Canyon into public parkland because it had retained water rights on the property for its own benefit.


SOS lost a similar case in Los Angeles County in which it sued the Mountains Restoration and Conservation Authority (MRCA) for accepting Ahmanson open space without a full environmental review.


"In order for it to be a legal fee simple transfer, Ahmanson was supposed to give MRCA everything that it owned as of 1992 on the property including those water rights," said Alyse Lazar, the activists’ attorney.


"Obviously you cannot have a wildlife preservation habitat area without the safekeeping of water for the plant and animal species that survive there," Lazar said.


SOS contends a favorable ruling on the water rights could serve as ammunition to void the original 1992 Ahmanson approval agreement. A subsequent 1998 agreement between the developers and the public agencies, including Ventura County and the MRCA, SOS officials said, violated the California Environmental Quality Act.


Attorneys for Washington Mutual, Ahmanson’s parent company, said the water rights issue doesn’t trigger the need for a new environmental study, as their opponents contend.


SOS fears Ahmanson will build more wells in addition to Ahmanson No. 1, a well that already in exists, and use the water for its golf courses and other facilities.


Located on the eastern Ventura County border near Calabasas, Ahmanson Ranch would include 400,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, a 300-room hotel, two golf courses, schools and homes.


"They have a different opinion about the water rights, but I disagree with them," said Laurie Collins, an MRCA spokesperson. "I think if they read the documents, they’d understand.


"They reserved the right to use the water from that well and pipes in and out from it," Collins said. "They were never allowed, even under the EIR (environmental impact report), to take all the water they wanted … The last thing we wanted to do is have the 2,600 acres and have the oak trees die."


So far, SOS has been unsuccessful in challenging Ventura County’s approval of the 1992 Ahmanson EIR. But Lazar said the group could still win its Ventura County appeal, and at the same time take the Los Angeles County decision to the California Supreme Court.


A decision on the Ventura appellate case could take several months.





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