As Guy Gniadek leaves the project, talks continue for selling the land to a park agency.
By P.G. O’Malley /Special to The Malibu Times
While environmentalists and long-term opponents search for the money to buy Ahmanson Ranch, Guy Gniadek, president of the Ahmanson Land Co., has quietly left the scene.
Gniadek spent 15 years guiding the project to last December’s certification by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, and his unanticipated departure fueled rumors that began circulating in late June that parent company Washington Mutual Inc. is ready to sell the 2,800-acre project, which is slated for 3,050 homes and two gulf courses near Las Virgenes Road, north of the 101 freeway.
In a tersely worded press release dated July 7, Washington Mutual announced that Gniadek had left the Ahmanson Ranch team “to pursue other endeavors.” Dave Murphy, a Washington Mutual senior vice president, will replace Gniadek as head of the Ahmanson Ranch project.
The savings bank’s spokesperson Tim McGarry said he had nothing to add to the statement, which also insisted that Washington Mutual intended to continue “the development approval process for the ranch,” while concurrently pursuing “discussions and arrangements” with the state.
The reference to the state related preliminary to discussions purportedly being held between Washington Mutual and the California Resources Agency to possibly transfer the ranch to a parks agency.
Interviewed by The Malibu Times a year ago, Gniadek had criticized efforts of environmentally concerned groups to save the property, accusing them of using the environment as an excuse to oppose growth. Asked then whether he might consider scaling down the project, Gniadek was emphatic that it would be built as planned.
In a statement issued immediately after Gniadek’s departure was made public, Chad Griffin, co-chair of Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, said he hoped this signaled further progress toward his organization’s goal of preserving the property.
Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch was established last year to fight the development, but founder Rob Reiner has always insisted he wanted a public agency to purchase the property for open space and recreational use. “Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch will continue to vigorously oppose the development on all fronts,” Griffin said, “until a sign reads ‘Ahmanson State Park.'”
Environmentalists and project opponents are currently pointing to state Proposition 50, passed last year, as a source of funds. Mary Wiesbrock, president of the Agoura Hills-based Save Open Space, which has been fighting the $2 billion development since it was approved in 1992, has repeatedly advocated the use of public moneys authorized for watershed protection in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
Malibu Mayor Ken Kearsley said the City Council supports the movement to buy the ranch. “It’s in everyone’s interest to preserve this as a public resource,” said Kearsley, who also mentioned Proposition 50. Kearsley noted that Malibu would be directly affected by traffic coming through Malibu Canyon and he worried that pesticides from project golf courses would find their way down the creek and “end up at First Point.”
Kearsley said the city will take an active roll in trying to get everybody together, such as “writing letters of encouragement to all parties.”
But Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston thinks it will take more than that. Edmiston, who had a history of deal making in the mountains, thinks politics are likely to affect how much Proposition 50 funds are available to purchase Ahmanson Ranch.
“People all over the state have got their long knives out,” Edmiston said, “and there’s bound to be debate about putting so much money toward one project.”
Although so far no one is talking price, Edmiston estimates the purchase of the Ahmanson Land Co. property would be the largest price-wise in the Santa Monica Mountains. Edmiston brokered the deal that saved Palo Camado and Chesebro canyons on the northern flank of the mountains from Bob Hope’s plans for a golf course and development of fairway homes. But it was at the expense of developing the Ahmanson property, a deal that was supported by a number of environmental groups including the Sierra Club. Since then, the Ahmanson Land Co. has deeded part of the original property in Las Virgenes and other land north of the ranch to the public, which will remain public property regardless of the disposition of the remaining 2,800 acres.
“It’s not a matter of stopping sprawl,” Edmiston said. “Sprawl is a land-use planning issue. This is a decision that had to do with habitat, endangered species and the long-term viability of the mountain ecosystem.”
The Washington Mutual property is the source of Las Virgenes Creek, which flows into Malibu Creek, and is habitat for two endangered species, the red-legged frog and the San Fernando Valley spine flower, once thought to be extinct. In addition, the area where Washington Mutual plans to build its town center is sacred to the local Chumash tribe.