Interdisciplinary Minor in Global
Sustainability
Senior Seminar
University of California, Irvine
June 1997
The Ahmanson Ranch Development
Supported By: Ahmanson Land Company
Home Savings of America (The Parent Company)
Charles Rinehart, CEO of Home Savings of America
Opposed By: Friends of Ahmanson Ranch
Chumash Indians
Melanie Baer, President of the Native Plant Society (S.G.Chapter)
Barbara J. Collins, Professor of Biology at California Lutherran University
Zev Yaroslavsky, Board of Supervisors, Third District
Susan Lacey, Supervisor for Ventura County
Laura Chick, Councilperson City of Los Angeles
Shiela Kuehl, State Assemblymember, 41st District
Joe Edmiston, Executive Director, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Senator Tom Hayden, 23rd District
It all started back in 1989 when Home Savings of America announced to build a giant new community consisting of 3,050 homes, two schools, two hotels, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial and industrial areas on the 5,400-acre Ahmanson Ranch located at the eastern end of Ventura county, adjacent to Los Angeles County. Even though the Ahmanson Ranch has been owned by Home Savings of America since 1963, the nature remained undisturbed all these past years. The ranch has become one of the important habitats for barely surviving native organisms including threatened or endangered species. For this and other important reasons, an organization, Friends of Ahmanson Ranch, was formed to stop the development with the support from other environmental organizations, local legislatures, politicians and public. Almost seven years have passed since the beginning of this issue, but the conflict still remain unsolved. What is interesting about this issue is the diversity in the reason which the Friends of Ahmanson Ranch claims for protecting the Ahmanson Ranch from development. They point out a variety of reason, and they are not necessarily environmental opinion.
First, the reasons of opposition starts from visible things such as plants and living organisms. President of the Native Plant Society San Gabriel Chapter, Melanie Baer, states that the wild grassland ecosystem of Agoura Hills located in the Ahmanson Ranch provides an important habitat for almost-extinct native plant species called Purple needle-grass, or Stipa pulchra. She also suggests that the mitigation of this plant will not be successful due to its difficulty and poor peripheral environment, such as golf course, of the mitigation site. Similaly, Dr. Barbara J. Collins, professor of biology at California Lutheran University, argues that the environmental impact report prepared for the development was inadequate and she points out the importance of the oak savannah along a North-facing slope of Lakey Mesa in the Ahmanson Ranch. According to her opinion, these oak trees are about 200 to 300 years old valley oaks and they are very sensitive species. A large portion of these oaks will be removed, and the remaining will most likely not survive the environmental changes they will go through due to its sensitive nature. In addition, these plants create crucial habitat for other living organisms such as birds, mammals, invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles. Some of them are even listed in the Federal and State endangered and threatened species lists. Badger, mountain lion, golden eagle, mountain butterfly are just a few example of many species reported by Friends of Ahmanson Ranch..
Other reasons for opposition are somewhat less visible because these are more sociological subjects. The development environmental impact report states that the project would have "unavoidable, significant" impacts on air quality, traffic and the rural environment of the areas closest to them. It seems as though Ventura county doesn’t mind all these predicted negative consequences of the development, because all these troubles are expected to occur in Los Angeles County. For the traffic situation, the development regions of the Ventura Freeway has been graded F by Cltrans, but it is expected to have additional 17,000 daily trips at Las Virgenes Road.
Friends of Ahmanson Ranch also argues that the environmental impact report ignored other damages. For example, Chumash Indians, who controlled the area now called Armanson Ranch long before the Home Savings of America came to own this property, claims the cultural values and archaeological values of the land. These archaeological sites include the Ahmanson batcave which Chumash Indians even have a myth regarding this cave. They also argue that important artifacts still left at or near site will be distroyed by the development. Another ignored potential problem is water quality degradation. Ellen Stern Harris, executive director of the Fund for the Environment, suggests that implementing golf courses close to the Malibu Creek is a bad idea. She says that continuous applications of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and rodenticides by the golf course management will sink into the ground or join irrigation or rain runoff. These will eventually flow into the Malibu Creek and the Malibu Lagoon State Beach. For this reason, she argues the necessity of further impact studies for these water sources.
Last but not least, there is a big concern over the liability of Home Saving of America in providing the open lands for public which they have once promised while making a deal with the Ventura county Board of Supervisors. According to the Ahmanson Ranch Development Agreement, five parcels of land, which are
are required to be purchased by the public, before the development can be started. Two of the five parcels, the Jordan Ranch and the Liberty Canyon property, were already purchased with $16.7 million and $10.0 million public money, respectively. Two of the remaining properties are currently owned by the entertainer Bob Hope and the last one is owned by the Home Savings of America itself. Why purchased with public money? Doesn’t it sound more reasonable if the Home Savings of America purchases it and donates it to the county? To make the situation worse, the Ahmanson Development Company and the Home Saving of America have suggested that they are probably unable to purchase the remaining ones and that they need more time and public money for the purchase.
Friends of Ahmanson Ranch has sued the Ahmanson Development Company and Ventula county several times already to stop the development project, but none of them were successful. The most recent case was rejected by the California Supreme Court in January 1997. The development cannot be started until the remaining purcels are dedicated to public, and until the Home Savings of America and Ahmanson Development Company solves all the legal problems with other counties like Los Angeles. This means the development will not start for a while. Hopefully, the Ventura county will learn to deal better meanwhile and will revise this one-sided agreement before the nature will be bulldozed down.
References
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