Ventura County environmental study says Ahmanson Ranch impact was significant; project near L.A. County line calls for 3,000 homes.

Ventura County environmental study says Ahmanson Ranch impact was significant

An environmental impact report was released last week for a 5,477-acre development being proposed by Calabasas-based Ahmanson Land Co., a development arm of H.F. Ahmanson & Co.

The so-called Ahmanson Ranch, one of the largest developments ever proposed in the Southland, would be built on the sprawling grasslands, hill and valley floors in the southeast corner of Ventura County, land abutting the Los Angeles County line.

The project would significantly impact the adjacent Los Angeles communities of Agoura, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and Lakeside Park with increased traffic, noise, and air and water pollution, the report stated.

In addition, it would necessitate the desruction of hundreds of acres of pristine wildlife habitat and would disrupt 17 archeological sites. Eight of those sites would be directly affected by project construction, the report pointed out.

Ahmanson officials said last week that the company had hired a group of outside consultants to analyze the EIR, which was performed for the County of Ventura by McClelland Consultants (West) Inc.

"By definition, the EIR is a negative document," said Gil Nielsen, a senior vice president at Ahmanson. "We won't have any specific comments on it until our consultants review it, which should take a few weeks."

Ahmanson is proposing to build 3,000 new homes, 3 million square feet of office-industrial space, two hotels, two 18-hole golf courses, a 250,000-square-foot retail center and 53 acres of parks.

The company is offering to donate some 3,025 acres of open land to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which lies directly west of the project Area.

Ahmanson plans to build its city-sized project in five phases over a 12-year period. The project is slated for completion by the year 2005.

When Ahmanson Ranch is complete, it is expected to accommodate a population of some 8,430 persons.

Consumption of up to 10 million gallons of water a day was determined to be an "insignificant" impact, the report stated, because of an existing agreement between Ahmanson and the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

The report did criticize Ahmanson's proposed mix of housing and jobs, stating the it would not provide enough homes to accommodate the number fo jobs generated by the project's commercial components.

Three possible alternative mixes offered in the report included increasing the number of homes to 9,200, shrinking the commercial component to 1.09 million square feet, or simultaneously increasing the number of homes to 3,972 and decreasing commercial space to 1.34 million square feet.

As for the impact on nature, the proposed project would wipe out 1,700 trees, 18 acres of wetlands, 300 acres of coastal sage scrub, 500 acres of grassland, six acres of riparian woodland, and 56 acres of riparian shrubbery.

Animal populations that would suffer from the project's intrusion on their natural habitats wuld be deer, mountain lions, badgers, bats, birds of prey, and various species of reptiles and amphibians.

Of specific concern, the report stated, is the disruption of several "sensitive species," including badgers, several species of bats, the coast horned lizard, and the valley oak ant.