Ventura County Development And Redevelopment

The last of seven "town hall" meetings on preserving Ventura County's farmland has yet to take place, but political leaders already are working on proposals addressing what is shaping up to be to be the hottest local issue of 1998. The Agriculture Policy Working Group, a 23-member panel of politicians, planners, farming advocates and building-industry representatives, will hold its final public meeting in Ojai on Feb. 17. The group will then convene Feb.

Opponents of the billion-dollar Ahmanson Ranch project in Ventura County and the DreamWorks movie studio in Playa del Rey will hold a four-day protest march through Los Angeles County beginning today. Sponsored by the Sierra Club, the second annual Earth, Water, Air--L.A. march will begin at the entrance to Bell Canyon Park off Vanowen Street in West Hills, just across the Ventura-Los Angeles county line from the Ahmanson Ranch property. Participants will set off at 9 a.m.

Opponents of the massive Ahmanson Ranch project are hopeful that Washington Mutual Inc.'s plan to purchase Home Savings of America will give them more opportunities to stop or amend the proposed $1-billion mini-city. "We're more hopeful now than at any point in the last 10 years," said Vince Curtis, board member of Save Open Space, a leading critic of the project east of Thousand Oaks.

Worried that an influx of more than 70,000 new residents along the county line could harm Ventura County, local leaders met Monday with members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to voice their concerns. Ventura County Supervisors Judy Mikels and Kathy Long joined their counterparts in Los Angeles to discuss how the proposed Newhall Land Co. project would hurt Ventura County's air quality, water quality, traffic, wildlife and agricultural lands, among other things.

The massive, 70,000-resident Newhall Ranch project--the largest single zoning application ever brought before Los Angeles County--took a major step forward Tuesday as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors held the only public hearing on the matter. The proposal to build a new town from scratch along the banks of the Santa Clara River near the Ventura County border would involve building 24,300 homes, a water reclamation plant and schools.

Critics of the proposed 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch project on the east Ventura County line are somewhere between amused and furious at the latest development in a war over Web site rights. Washington Mutual Inc., parent company of Ahmanson Land Co., is trying to force two groups, Save Open Space and Friends of Ahmanson Ranch, to stop using Web site addresses http://ahmanson.org, http://ahmansonranch.com and http://ahmanson-ranch.

The developer of the Ahmanson Ranch housing project has sent a sharply worded letter to open space advocates, warning them to dismantle a popular Web site created in opposition to the project or face legal action in federal court. The site--www.ahmanson.

A judge's decision temporarily blocking Newhall Ranch--the largest residential project in Los Angeles County--has boosted the hopes of those seeking to halt the Ahmanson Ranch project planned for southeastern Ventura County. Both projects abut the Ventura-Los Angeles county border, and have fueled battles between the counties over potential detrimental effects on traffic, endangered species and open space.

Opponents of the Ahmanson Ranch development have stepped up their campaign against one of the largest developments in county history by launching a series of radio attack ads against Washington Mutual Bank, parent company of the land developer.

A study of soil and surface water samples on the Ahmanson Ranch property has found no chemicals that pose a health threat to residents, developers have announced. Developers of the proposed 3,050-home community near Hidden Hills undertook the study after area residents became concerned about potential contaminants from the nearby Santa Susana Field Laboratory operated by Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne Division, said Adrian Rodriguez, spokesman for Washington Mutual, which owns Ahmanson Land Co.