CALABASAS MAY END OPPOSITION TO AHMANSON RANCH PROPOSAL.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Developers of Ahmanson Ranch could win another battle today when the Calabasas City Council considers an agreement calling on the developer to pay $1.22 million for street improvements, leaving an open space group on its own to fight the project.

Calabasas and the Save Open Space group have led opposition to the proposal for 3,050 homes and related construction on the 5,433-acre site, joining in two lawsuits that Ahmanson Land Co. has won in court. Calabasas officials now recommend that the council endorse a plan to give the city control over street improvements intended to absorb traffic generated by the massive development.

If the council approves the plan, the Ahmanson Land Co. will ask Ventura County to approve an amendment to the Ahmanson Ranch Specific Plan that the county's Board of Supervisors approved in 1992, said Mary Trigg, spokeswoman for H.F. Ahmanson Holding Company, parent of the development company.

``We don't believe it's controversial. Obviously, this is something that everybody wins with,'' Trigg said.

Trigg noted that the proposed street improvements include extending Thousand Oaks Boulevard into the city, opening a vital thoroughfare for Ahmanson Ranch. ``I expect that will no longer be an issue.''

Calabasas City Manager Charles Cate stated that ``the city strongly supports this amendment'' in the draft form of a letter the council will consider sending to Ventura County planning officials.

``The city believes that this amendment will allow the city to exercise appropriate local control over its streets while fully mitigating the traffic impacts from the Ahmanson Ranch project,'' Cate stated.

Cate did not return phone calls Tuesday.

A leader of the open space group said time is running out for opponents of the mini-city planned for southeastern Ventura County next to the Los Angeles County border.

``It's bad news,'' said Mary Wiesbrock, who helped found Save Open Space after Ahmanson Ranch and the aborted Jordan Ranch projects first were proposed in the late 1980s.

``We're down at the bottom of the ninth inning,'' she said. ``We're behind because this billionaire bully has bulled his way through with this project.''

The Ventura-based 2nd District Court of Appeal twice has rejected lawsuits by opponents. The state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on the first lawsuit and Save Open Space asked the court this month to hear an appeal on the second lawsuit, which claims the development will endanger federally protected wildlife and could expose residents to contamination from a nearby Rocketdyne field lab.

Ahmanson officials, however, contend the proposed development is sound and have defended the environmental study.

Trigg said Ahmanson officials remain confident that the project will withstand the last legal challenge. ``We've spent quite a bit of time over the last years dealing with all these legal issues.''

After nearly a decade of work, Trigg also said the project's longtime director has stepped down. Donald Brackenbush, who has overseen several Ahmanson development projects, remains a project consultant.

``Basically, we have worked our way through a lot of issues with the ranch and now he is a consultant,'' she said.

Wiesbrock, the longtime adversary of Brackenbush on the Ahmanson project, recalled that he led county planners and interested residents on a tour of the ranch when the development was first proposed. She hasn't been back on the private property since that tour.

``This is not the place for a new city. They should be redeveloping the San Fernando Valley instead of tearing up the largest open space ranch left in this area,'' she said.