Housing is needed to accommodate population growth; Ahmanson supporters say development is a perfect model of how this growth should be accommodated.
By Sylvie Belmond/Special to The Malibu Times
While many existing suburban communities vigorously shun large development projects, such as the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch proposal, it is estimated California’s population will grow by 12 million by the year 2020.
The question looms-where do you put 12 million people?
Not in our back yard say Calabasas City councilmembers and many residents of the area that would be impacted by the project.
Continuing a 10-year battle with the developer, Washington Mutual Bank, the Calabasas City Council organized a special meeting on Saturday so residents could air their views about the development.
However, despite vociferous opposition, a few came out to support the project, stating it will help solve Southern California’s housing shortage problem.
Lois Brestoff, a Calabasas resident, is one of the minorities.
“I felt like I needed to have my bulletproof vest before I came,” Brestoff said.
Brestoff thinks the Ahmanson development is just what Southern California needs.
“It’s a place where I’d love to raise my children,” she said. “Ahmanson should be looked on as a model for future development in California.”
Some believe the cries of more traffic and congestion as a result of the development are false.
“To blame the traffic dilemma on the project is unfair and not reasonable,” said Jay Seachore, who noted that as the population in Southern California grows, this project is an example of how it should develop.
Ahmanson is a pre-planned village with a town center surrounded by dense housing that becomes less dense the further the homes are away from the center.
The town incorporates features that will encourage people to walk places, leaving their cars in the garage.
Opponents questioned the idea.
“When is the last time Californians walked to the store to get a gallon of milk?” asked a speaker at the meeting.
Opponents say they will fight this project to their last dying breath.
Tsilah Burman, executive director of Rally To Save Ahmanson Ranch, said the housing crisis would not be solved by the housing project. The only affordable housing in Ahmanson Ranch is constituted by servant and guest quarters, she said, suggesting that Ventura County should focus on in-fill areas. She suggested renovating downtown Oxnard where new affordable housing could be provided without using any open space.
According to a project overview, the community will feature a wide range of housing.
“Twenty-two percent of the project’s housing will be reserved for low and moderate income,” according to the Ahmansonland.com Web site.
If built, Ahmanson Ranch will be lodged in between the San Fernando and the Conejo valleys, at the head of the Malibu Creek Watershed.
The biggest concerns are environmental-two endangered species are at risk, and pollution run-off from the development’s golf courses and into existing water ways will occur, say opponents.
Calabasas Planning Commissioner Lee Vanhouten brought up these concerns at the meeting.
“It’s not about Not in My Backyard,” he said. “It’s about a natural sensitive habitat.”
But supporters say Ahmanson will help the endangered species that currently live on the property with re-establishment in other areas and existing habitat will be preserved, increasing the chances of survival in the long run.
Still, neighboring cities like Calabasas, Woodland Hills and even Malibu, do not want more demand on their infrastructure and additional discharge in local waterways.
Opponents say an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) drafted in 1992 is flawed because it is out of date, and that a supplemental EIR was not thorough.
Supporters see the matter differently. They say the original EIR is as old as it is because litigation initiated by the opponents has prevented the project from moving forward.
The supplemental EIR was drafted to update the initial EIR and bring it into compliance with new laws. But even if a round of new lawsuits takes place, groundbreaking is expected to begin by late 2003.
Joining actor/director Rob Reiner and actor Martin Sheen, who are with Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch in their opposition to the project on Saturday, actor Beau Ridges took the reins of the star spangled opposition.
“Washington Mutual is acting in total disrespect,” he said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky also voiced his opposition.
“It’s about saving what’s left of what nature has given us,” he said.
Though L.A. County has developed large tract housing projects in the vicinity of Ahmanson, Yaroslavsky was not in office when the county approved these projects.
“Since he took office in late 1994, only one tract map [a 46-home project] was approved by the county and he [Yaroslavsky] vigorously opposed it,” said Laura Shell, a deputy for Yaroslavsky.
Opponents cite that developments are market-driven, not necessity-driven.
But supporters counter that profitability is the American way.
“When [Calabasas Mayor Leslie] Devine says Ahmanson is bad because they want to make money, well that’s what our country is all about,” said Brestoff.
Ahmanson is not alone in the development battle dilemma. A large housing project in L.A. County’s Santa Clarita Valley, known as Newhall Ranch, is also working its way through the county bureaucracy. In that case, L.A. County is the supporter and Ventura County the opponent.