Parent Firm’s Possible Sale Buoys Foes of Ahmanson

THOUSAND OAKS —  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. “I don’t know what Washington Mutual’s record is on development, but I think there’s going to be room for us to make ourselves heard. . . . They can’t be any worse than Home Savings.”

Seattle-based Washington Mutual announced Tuesday that it has struck a deal to buy H. F. Ahmanson Inc., parent company of Home Savings of America and Ahmanson Land Co., for an estimated $9.9 billion in stock options.

The buyout will create the West Coast’s second-largest consumer bank with about 6 million customers and $150 billion in assets. It could also lead to shutting down some Home Savings branches in Ventura County.

While Curtis and other Ahmanson Ranch opponents regarded news of the sale as promising for their effort to stop the sprawling project, officials at Washington Mutual said they haven’t made any decisions regarding Home Savings’ holdings, or the Ahmanson Ranch project in particular.

“This deal came together so quickly that it would be premature for us to comment on the future of the properties,” said Libby Hutchinson, Washington Mutual’s spokeswoman. “But with the Ahmanson Ranch project, it’s safe to say that there will be no change in what they’re doing at least until the third quarter of this year. . . . That will give everyone time to review it.”

Home Savings spokeswoman Mary Trigg said that she was not aware of any changes in the development and that its future was not a factor in negotiations between the two companies.

As planned, the Ahmanson Ranch project will include 3,050 homes, two championship golf courses, a 300-room resort hotel, and more than 300,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

Opponents have charged that by its very size, the development would do irreparable harm to the environment, dump traffic onto nearby Los Angeles County streets and pave the way for unchecked development in eastern Ventura County.

The project, which has been on the table for 10 years, has been the target of more than a dozen lawsuits, which have since been resolved.

The development was also in jeopardy after entertainer Bob Hope remained reluctant to sell two ranches that Ahmanson needed to complete its deal with Ventura County.

However, Hope agreed to a deal earlier this year and representatives of the entertainer said the buyout will have no bearing on the purchase of those properties. Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon will be set aside as open space preserves.

“Washington Mutual’s purchase won’t have any effect on the properties,” said Hope spokesman Ward Grant. “That’s a closed deal.”

While Ahmanson critics have not yet decided how they will launch another attack on the project, they said they could pursue more lawsuits.

That, however, would have to wait until the project’s plans are opened again for discussion before county leaders. Those plans would only be opened when builders begin construction--or if Washington Mutual requests that the project’s plans be changed.

Curtis said opponents are considering a lawsuit charging that the project’s environmental review was faulty because it did not test soils for possible radioactive and chemical contamination from Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Lab just two miles away.

“We’re not sure about what we’re going to do, but you can be sure that we’re going to be pounding on Washington Mutual’s door,” he said.

* HOME SAVINGS SALE

The owner of Home Savings of America is being sold for nearly $10 billion. A1