Paradise Lost

Think twice before developing large, controversial parcels.

Last November in Ventura County, Calif., protests prompted the proposed Ahmanson Ranch master plan to be turned into a nature conservancy.

Six years after a clean environmental impact report on Ahmanson Ranch, the state approved a mixed-use plan with 3,050 homes on 3,800 acres in return for a donation of 10,000 acres of open space. But protests led in 1999 to a supplemental environmental impact study, which uncovered a threatened frog and a rare flower on the property. Opposition gained steam as Hollywood celebrities joined the fray, and the developer sold the property to California in November 2003 for $150 million - $20 million less than a state appraisal.

The developer was Washington Mutual, a Seattle-based bank that inherited the land in its 1998 acquisition of Irwindale, Calif.-based bank H.F. Ahmanson & Co.

"I hate to say this, but it could be hazardous, politically and financially, to propose large projects," says Dennis Hawkins, a senior planner with Ventura County. While the Ahmanson plans ground to a halt, he says, two or three times as much acreage was approved in surrounding areas. "But these were smaller projects done incrementally, one at a time, versus one fell swoop. People don't notice the small projects, only the big ones."