COUNCIL PLANNING LAWSUIT FOR AHMANSON.

Byline: - Harrison Sheppard

Returning to work Tuesday after a two-week recess, the Los Angeles City Council hopes to finalize plans to sue to block the Ahmanson Ranch project in Ventura County.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the project's supplemental environmental impact report last month after years of controversy over the 3,050-home development. The City Council has already gone on record saying it plans to sue to challenge the decision on the grounds that its traffic and environmental studies were inadequate.

On Tuesday, the council will hear a report from the City Attorney's Office on the feasibility of filing suit, and is expected to again confirm plans to sue.

West Valley Councilman Dennis Zine, who proposed the suit, said a central problem is that while there is room for traffic mitigation in Ventura County, there is no room for expansion of the Ventura Freeway on the Los Angeles County side.

``People in other parts of the city who don't drive the Ventura Freeway as I do every day really can't appreciate the frustration that people who drive it feel every day,'' Zine said.

City officials and other opponents of the Ahmanson Ranch development have said the 10-year-old environmental report is out-of-date and needs to be redone.

Ventura County officials and developer Washington Mutual bank have said they believe the traffic studies are adequate, and say there is a need for the housing and jobs the project will create.