AHMANSON RANCH OPEN-SPACE SALE TALKS GAIN OK.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open got the go-ahead Friday to proceed in negotiations to buy the 2,800-acre Ahmanson Ranch for open space as early as November. The California Board of Public Works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. reviewed the proposal and determined it meets environmental criteria and the state has sufficient money to buy the land, located west of Woodland Hills, in neighboring Ventura County. The board's approval and the completed initial appraisal of the property set the stage for the conservancy to negotiate with Washington Mutual “WaMu” redirects here. For the Washington, DC radio station, see WAMU. Washington Mutual (or WaMu; NYSE: WM) is the United States' largest savings and loan association. , which owns the land and has approval from Ventura County for a 3,050-home residential and commercial development. ``Ahmanson Ranch is unique and the opportunity to save it appears to be at hand,'' said Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Woodland Hills. Besides talks with Washington Mutual, the project must go through a series of hearings before the California Coastal Conservancy The California Coastal Conservancy is a government agency that aims to protect coastline resources along the California coastline. External links
``Each step is an indication of the state's interest in purchasing this,'' said Stanley Young, spokesman for the California Resources Agency The California Resources Agency is a top-level executive branch agency in the state government of California. The institution and jurisdiction of the Resources Agency is provided for in California Government Code sections 12800 and 12805, et seq. . A Board of Public Works staff report said the anticipated close of escrow is Nov. 13, if negotiations proceed as expected. The state cannot pay more than estimated fair market value as estimated by the appraisal, which is being kept secret. Conservancy officials have said they could tap into $300 million allocated to Ventura and Los Angeles County watershed projects in the Proposition 50 Water Bond. The ranch would qualify for the funds because it is located at the top of the Malibu Creek watershed, a key stretch of mountains that drain into the polluted Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is an arm of the Pacific Ocean in southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume . Foes of the proposed $2 billion development have long argued the land should be preserved because of its ecological value. The ranch has more than nine miles of streams and is home to the threatened California red-legged frog The California Red-legged frog (Rana aurora ) is a sub-species of frog within the family Ranidae also known as the "true frogs". It was earlier classified as a subspecies, Rana aurora draytonii . Washington Mutual recently indicated it would be a willing seller and that opened the door to negotiations with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion