37.Ahmanson Ranch/7 inches/LK1st/mark2nd

No. 37

Ventura County Approves Ahmanson Ranch

It took more than a decade of on-again, off-again negotiations, planning and false starts. But the Ahmanson Ranch housing development finally got the nod in late November, when the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the massive project by a 2-1 vote.

Ahmanson Land Co., which will develop the $1 billion mini-city, will plan for 3,050 homes, 400,000 square feet of commercial space, a 300-room hotel, two golf courses and two schools on its 2,800 acres of land east of Oak Park.

While the project lies in Ventura County, its location just across the county line sparked opposition from San Fernando Valley residents in adjacent L.A. County, who argued that it would add congestion and pollution, strain already overtaxed water supplies, and provide little if any added tax revenues for their county.

The stalled project had been shelved during the region’s economic downturn in the ’90s. It received a major boost in September, when the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy completed its assembly of nearly 10,000 acres of adjacent land to be preserved as open space. Preservation of the land helped ease over-development concerns, and fulfilled Ahmanson’s 1992 agreement with Ventura County to leave a certain amount of land as open, public space.

In September, Washington Mutual Inc., which recently acquired Ahmanson Land’s parent, said there is no time frame for the beginning of construction, and that the project would proceed as planned.

D.B. Young