Guest columnist
A model development

By Bruce Babbitt
Special to The Times

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In my travels throughout the country as secretary of the interior, I witnessed countless skirmishes between developers and their no-growth or slow-growth opponents.

These opponents often presented important concerns about how development would affect the environment. In a number of cases, I was able to play a role in bringing contending parties together to achieve significant environmental protection, while finding ways to accommodate the need for housing and economic development essential to maintaining a region's economic vitality.

Needless to say, I've seen good developments and developers — and bad. I've seen companies that go the extra mile in environmental responsibility — and the opposite. I can tell the difference.

Washington Mutual's Ahmanson Ranch project in Southern California stands as a national model of smart, innovative and environmentally responsible development. It is nationally recognized as such by a variety of respected organizations.

Why? For starters, some 10,000 acres of land (including 7,300 acres donated by Washington Mutual) already have been designated as permanent open space as a result of Ahmanson Ranch's development agreement with Ventura County. That is one of the largest open space land dedications ever made in Southern California.

The agreement was reached in good faith through a public-private effort by parties that included the National Park Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Ventura County, the state of California and the Ahmanson Land Company. It provides a "mitigation ratio" of more than five acres of dedicated parkland for every acre of development — setting an example that should be encouraged in all developments wherever they are located.

For all intents and purposes, Washington Mutual has already saved the Ahmanson Ranch.

And make no mistake, the 3,050 housing units planned for Ahmanson Ranch are urgently needed. Southern California faces a serious housing crisis. The five-county region will require more than 425,000 additional housing units (about 20,000 units in Ventura County alone) by 2005 to meet expected needs, and studies show that the problem will worsen in the years ahead unless housing production is stepped up.

To suggest that Southern California's housing needs can be met by restricting home construction to infill development in the region's "urban core" is unrealistic.

Moreover, the depiction of Ahmanson Ranch as the last remaining open space in the Santa Monica Mountains is inaccurate. In fact, the site (which is not actually in the Santa Monica Mountains) already is surrounded on three sides by housing developments and on the fourth by some 7,000 acres of parkland — much of which was donated by the company.

Regardless of how some wish to dress it up, Southern California has evolved into a great metropolitan area. This is the choice its residents have made. They want to live in proximity to good jobs and the rich and diverse cultural and recreational opportunities that great cities provide. Accommodating those desires requires a delicate balance between the need for housing and respect for the environment. The Ahmanson Ranch achieves that balance, and should be emulated, not excoriated.

Ahmanson Ranch clusters development to maximize open space. All homes are within a 10-minute walk or bike ride from shopping, recreational amenities and offices.

The ranch represents a residential community concept that is socially, as well as environmentally, responsible. Some 25 percent of the units will be designated for affordable housing under guidelines set forth by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, Washington Mutual has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect water quality and to protect and restore sensitive species populations.

Washington Mutual has built a reputation in the Northwest for conducting its business in a socially and environmentally responsible and sensitive way. It has brought those Northwest sensibilities to Southern California, and for that it should be commended.

It's easy for opponents who already live in million-dollar homes to criticize the ranch project. It's also easy to point to past mistakes in Southern California that have allowed unattractive, poorly designed projects to dot the landscape. But simply pulling up the drawbridge to accommodate a vocal (albeit extremely affluent) few who want to stop new home building in their neighborhood helps no one.

If Southern California is going to accommodate growth — and just like Seattle and other urban areas, it must — developments such as Ahmanson Ranch are a path that creates a promising national model.

Bruce Babbitt, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, practices law with the firm of Latham & Watkins and serves as a liaison for the Ahmanson Land Company with environmental organizations.

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

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