State attorney general joins fight against Ahmanson





By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced last week that he’s joining the legal opposition to Ahmanson Ranch, a 2,800-acre development being planned for eastern Ventura County.


In a letter distributed by state Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Woodland Hills) and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), Lockyer said he’s concerned about the impact the 3,050-home project will have on water quality and plant and animal species living in the area.


In addition, Lockyer said the 10-year-old traffic study used for Ahmanson Ranch is out of date and should be revisited.


Ventura County lawmakers approved the project ‘s environmental report in 1992 and a second supplemental study last December. The latter vote triggered a new round of lawsuits by Los Angeles County and the cities of Los Angeles, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Malibu and Thousand Oaks.


"I have made the decision that my office will support the petitioners in their challenge to the approval of Ahmanson ranch as an amicus curiae [friend of the court]," Lockyer wrote in his letter to the state legislators.


"We will work with the petitioners toward a resolution of this lawsuit that requires adequate environmental review and appropriate mitigation for environmental impacts associated with the project," the attorney general said.


The Ahmanson Ranch court case recently was moved from Ventura County to Riverside County, but trial dates haven’t been set.


"The decision by Attorney General Lockyer to support the challenge to Ventura’s approval of the [supplemental environmental impact report] lends important support for further assessment of the devastating impacts the Ahmanson Ranch project will cause," Kuehl said in a statement.


Tim McGarry, a spokesman for property owner Washington Mutual bank, said Lockyer’s decision hasn’t swayed the developer’s tenacity. "We certainly do not wish to minimize anyway the importance of the attorney general and his views," McGarry said, "but we respectfully disagree with the position he’s taken on this matter. We have always sought to ensure that this is a project conforms to the letter and spirit of California’s environmental laws," he said.


Although Ventura County officials have signed off on Ahmanson Ranch, other government agencies still must give their approval, including several state and federal regulatory agencies.


McGarry said the developer recently met with the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board and submitted a work plan that deals with potentially dangerous chemicals found in one of the wells adjacent the ranch.


Coming in April will be a meeting by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission to discuss the removal of 10 oak trees on nearby Thousand Oaks Boulevard.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *