GROUPS ASSAIL BOARD'S POSITION ON AHMANSON, NEWHALL TRACTS : SUPERVISORS' SUPPORT, OPPOSITION TO SIMILAR PROJECTS CALLED `HYPOCRITICAL'.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Call it a tale of two ranches.

The first is named Ahmanson, a $1 billion mini-city planned for the rugged hills of Santa Susana along the southwestern tip of Ventura County.

The second is called Newhall, an even bigger megatract of 25,000 homes planned for the largest expanse of open space left in Los Angeles County.

Caught in the middle is the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, which signed off on the Ahmanson project five years ago and again in 1995. Meanwhile, the supervisors have emerged as one of the primary potential opponents of the Newhall project, devoting $79,000 last month toward legal and planning fees to monitor the permit process in Los Angeles.

Environmentalists accuse the supervisors of flip-flopping by raising objections only when it suits their interests.

``It's incredibly hypocritical,'' said Vince Curtis, an assessor from Oak park and vice president of the environmental activist group Save Open Space. ``They say there's no comparison, but if you look at it, both projects are going to devastate the environment. The only thing that changes is which pockets are lined.''

Ahmanson Ranch is planned for Ventura County, but all roads to the development lead to Los Angeles County. Ventura County will gain all the tax benefits and suffer few of the problems, said Curtis.

``Ventura has a lot to gain from Ahmanson, so the problems don't matter to them as much,'' he said. ``It's hard to take them as seriously when they go after Newhall, where they don't stand to gain anything.''

But county officials and opponents of Newhall Ranch said this week the supervisors have given each project the scrutiny it deserves. The Ahmanson project was only approved after supervisors won significant concessions - including a pledge from the developer to devote some 10,000 acres as public open space. Most importantly, the Newhall project is roughly eight times as large as Ahmanson and deserving of at least as much regulatory review, said Frank Schillo, chairman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

``This is a much bigger project,'' said Schillo. ``All we want is to make sure we're included in the review. At this point we just want to make sure the facts of how Ventura County will be impacted are considered.''

The two projects share uncanny similarities. Both are enormous tract developments that straddle county lines. Both are the subject of strenuous objections from environmentalists. Both are defended by developers as good uses of undeveloped land.

The ranches are mirror images of each other, with some elements identical and the sides reversed.

Officials in Ventura County worry that traffic and pollution will travel from the Newhall Ranch Community over the county line into Ventura. The project includes business parks, schools and homes to accommodate 70,000 people, all along the banks of the Santa Clara River, the last completely free-flowing river in California.

The Ahmanson project calls for 3,050 homes, a 300-room hotel, two schools, four parks and two golf courses in the hills just south of the Rocketdyne test laboratory.

It's no wonder the Ventura supervisors have raised objections to Newhall while approving the smaller counterpart, said Lynne Plambeck, a member of Santa Clarita Organization Planning for the Environment.

``Newhall is a much more devastating project for the environment,'' she said. ``It wouldn't have been put on the table in Ventura County in the first place.''

While Ahmanson has been described as a mini-city, it dwarfs in comparison to Newhall, she said.

``It's like talking about a 3 on the Richter scale instead of a 7 - it's quite a bit different in the shaking.''

Scrutiny by Ventura County is an enormous help to environmentalists, said Plambeck, because it fulfills a role that activist groups cannot always play.

``Their participation will make a big difference,'' she said. ``The grass-roots and environmental organizations have a lot of good human resources and willing hands, but sometimes you just have to hire somebody to do this stuff.''

Opponents of Ahmanson, however, say any green credentials that officials in Ventura County wish to employ have been sullied by their continued support of the project in their own back yard.

``In the end, both of these projects are going to be huge environmental disasters,'' said Mary Wiesbrock, director of SOS. ``Both are going to take multimillions of grading and infrastructure and ruin what little of open space we have left.''

The Ventura County Supervisors were swayed by the influence of Ahmanson, an affiliate of Home Savings of America, she said.

``How do they say no to them?'' she said. ``They couldn't, just like the L.A. Supervisors can't say no to Newhall.''

But public officials in both counties may find that the megaprojects will be bigger drains than benefits in the long run, said Mike Koch, president of SCOPE.

``They look at these things and think they would be crazy not to go for the golden calf,'' he said. ``But these projects can drain more in services than they make up in tax revenues. Long after all this is over, they could be left with a bigger problem than they started with.''