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THE FEELING IS MUTUAL
By Michael Collins
(Los Angeles ValleyBeat - July 10, 2003)
ONE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S most bitterly contested development projects took a radical and unexpected
turn this week, stunning environmentalists and open-space advocates and possibly indicating a change of heart
by developers. On June 7, Washington Mutual, Inc. announced the departure of Guy Gniadek, who was head of
the Ahmanson Ranch Land Co.. Gniadek has spent the last 17 years working on the highly controversial
Washington Mutual project that would build 3,050 luxury homes on 2,800 acres in the pristine hills west of the San
Fernando Valley. Washington Mutual obtained the property when it purchased the H.F. Ahmanson Co. in 1998.
Dave Murphy, a "WaMu" senior vice president, will replace Gniadek. Murphy is a division executive of the
mega-bank's commercial assets division, which specializes in buying and selling property, not developing it.
Despite denials by the company, activists across Ventura and Los Angeles counties are seeing this as another
sign that the bank may be looking to unload the property.
Last week, ValleyBeat reported that the state's Resource Department had be¬gun discussions with WaMu
regarding the possible acquisition of the acreage as parkland. However, in a written statement issued by the bank
Monday, the company maintains it is still going forward with the project. "Under [Murphy's] leadership, it is the
company's intention to continue with the development approval process for the Ranch and, concurrently, pursue
discussions and arrangements with developers and the State regarding the Ranch," reads the statement.
Pollution concerns regarding the property may be one reason that WaMu may be giving up the ghost on
Ahmanson Ranch. The land lies within two miles of Rocketdyne's heavily polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory,
the site of two partial nuclear meltdowns. However, a bank spokesperson, Tim McGarry, denied this was a factor
in a July 8 email to ValleyBeat, in which he wrote that WaMu's concerns about the Ranch did not "have anything
to do with Rocketdyne."
Others aren't so sure. "I am very pleased to see that the media exposure about the pollution and contamination
up at Rocketdyne has really made Washing¬ton Mutual take a second look and do the right thing, which is sell the
land to the State," says Christina Walsh, an activist with CleanUpRocketdyne.org. "That's what we are hoping
they will do now. It looks very, very hopeful."
By Michael Collins
(Los Angeles ValleyBeat - July 10, 2003)
ONE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S most bitterly contested development projects took a radical and unexpected
turn this week, stunning environmentalists and open-space advocates and possibly indicating a change of heart
by developers. On June 7, Washington Mutual, Inc. announced the departure of Guy Gniadek, who was head of
the Ahmanson Ranch Land Co.. Gniadek has spent the last 17 years working on the highly controversial
Washington Mutual project that would build 3,050 luxury homes on 2,800 acres in the pristine hills west of the San
Fernando Valley. Washington Mutual obtained the property when it purchased the H.F. Ahmanson Co. in 1998.
Dave Murphy, a "WaMu" senior vice president, will replace Gniadek. Murphy is a division executive of the
mega-bank's commercial assets division, which specializes in buying and selling property, not developing it.
Despite denials by the company, activists across Ventura and Los Angeles counties are seeing this as another
sign that the bank may be looking to unload the property.
Last week, ValleyBeat reported that the state's Resource Department had be¬gun discussions with WaMu
regarding the possible acquisition of the acreage as parkland. However, in a written statement issued by the bank
Monday, the company maintains it is still going forward with the project. "Under [Murphy's] leadership, it is the
company's intention to continue with the development approval process for the Ranch and, concurrently, pursue
discussions and arrangements with developers and the State regarding the Ranch," reads the statement.
Pollution concerns regarding the property may be one reason that WaMu may be giving up the ghost on
Ahmanson Ranch. The land lies within two miles of Rocketdyne's heavily polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory,
the site of two partial nuclear meltdowns. However, a bank spokesperson, Tim McGarry, denied this was a factor
in a July 8 email to ValleyBeat, in which he wrote that WaMu's concerns about the Ranch did not "have anything
to do with Rocketdyne."
Others aren't so sure. "I am very pleased to see that the media exposure about the pollution and contamination
up at Rocketdyne has really made Washing¬ton Mutual take a second look and do the right thing, which is sell the
land to the State," says Christina Walsh, an activist with CleanUpRocketdyne.org. "That's what we are hoping
they will do now. It looks very, very hopeful."
