AHMANSON DEVELOPMENT IS DONE RIGHT.

IN a recent Daily News article, William Fulton, a regional planning expert, aptly characterized the growing cadre of elected officials who oppose the construction of new housing on their turf as ``NIMDs'' - not in my district. Clearly, too many short-sighted leaders have jumped on the no-growth bandwagon.

In our own area, the Ahmanson Ranch is the latest example of this form of NIMBY (not in my back yard) politics. During a decade-long planning and design process, Ahmanson Ranch worked to dedicate 10,000 acres as permanent open space and has agreed to build on just 1,500 of the remaining 2,800 acres.

It has worked closely with state and federal agencies to protect natural resources and water quality, and nearly a quarter of the project is affordable housing units.

For this commitment to working with the community, Ahmanson Ranch has earned national recognition for its design and environmental resource preservation plans.

Despite these efforts, the Ahmanson Ranch continues to be a favorite target of NIMBYs and NIMDs, whose marginal lawsuits and political maneuvering have delayed it for nearly a decade.

These opponents move the goal posts at every turn, providing an abundance of criticism and alarm but no solutions.

Recently on this page, a critic claimed the development would essentially eliminate the last vestiges of open space in the area and suggested, ``if it were located anywhere else, Ahmanson Ranch could be a `new vision.'''

This distortion failed to acknowledge the 10,000 acres of open space already dedicated by the project - providing Ventura County with more open space than most regions of the state.

The refusal by NIMDs and NIMBYs to acknowledge such responsible action raises a red flag to other community-oriented, environmentally sensitive companies considering future land preservation agreements.

Despite the financial and schedule setbacks, the Ahmanson Land Company should be able to weather the delays in the permitting process. For those who need nearby and affordable housing, it's a different story. In a growing Southern California, there are a lot of people in that category.

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) reports that Los Angeles County will need more than 250,000 new housing units by 2006, more than 50,000 housing units each year. Yet a recent report indicates fewer than 10,000 new home permits were issued last year.

A Department of Housing and Community Development study details how California's housing shortage is largely the ``result of political pressure, particularly at the local level.'' The study titled Raising the Roof confirms that California's costly and cumbersome permit process adds tens of thousands of dollars onto the price of houses.

Although no one wants poorly planned development, the time has come to ask whether the pendulum has swung too far.

I believe we've reached the point where our failure to provide adequate public works and housing stunts our long-term economic health.

Companies seeking to locate or expand in a region consider availability and cost of employee housing to be vital issues. It's estimated California builds only one housing unit for every six new jobs. Only about a third of area residents can qualify for a loan on a median-price house.

Yet to hear the NIMDs and NIMBYs tell it, housing - the ``H-word'' - is the root of all environmental evil. Not-in-my-district rhetoric may attract votes, but it does not solve our housing crisis or address real environmental issues.

As former U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who is helping Ahmanson Ranch establish a dialogue with environmental groups, said, ``We've got two choices: One is no more housing and the other is to do it right.''

The paradox is that the well-designed, master-planned communities the alarmists oppose strike a much better balance between our housing and environmental needs than the patchwork of small, sprawling housing projects that would be built instead.

If local leaders do not give home builders incentives to do things right, they probably will not.