Picus Again Threatens to Block Access to New Homes : Victory Boulevard: Councilwoman wants the Ahmanson Ranch builder to close the street. Rivals say the action would only increase traffic in their areas.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus on Thursday reiterated her threat to block Victory Boulevard to prevent a tidal wave of traffic from the proposed Ahmanson Ranch project. But Las Virgenes-area homeowners on the other side of the development fumed, saying that she was being too provincial.

Picus’ line in the sand is a one-foot strip of dirt--a right of way held by the city, but not yet dedicated for public use.

Picus figures she can refuse to allow the one-foot strip at the western end of Victory Boulevard to be dedicated until the Ahmanson Land Co. agrees to close the street to stem the flow of traffic from the giant Ventura County project.

Victory Boulevard is the eastern access for the 3,050-dwelling project. An environmental impact report estimates that the project would generate more than 22,000 vehicle trips along Victory Boulevard each day.

“I will not permit that to happen,” Picus said, standing behind a banner that read: “Keep Your Hands Off Our Foot.”

Picus, reacting to the environmental report that was released last week, wants Ahmanson to restrict access to Victory Boulevard, either with a gate at the project’s border or by turning the boulevard into a dead end inside the property.

But residents on the other side of the project, where proposed southern access roads would cut through Calabasas, complained that Picus’ threat has fractured any unified opposition to the project and might actually increase traffic at their end.

They want Picus to join a chorus of Los Angeles County officials and homeowners and denounce the entire project--a move that Picus said she is not prepared to make.

“It’s distressing to me that her position is it ought to be gated,” said Les Hardie, president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. “That does not really deal with the problems. . . . Everybody who has anything to say about it down on the ground is opposed to it. It’s just too damn big. . . .”

“For whatever reason, the city of Los Angeles has ignored this project even though it is an 800-pound gorilla sitting on their porch,” Hardie said. “They have not opened their eyes wide enough and this strikes me as feeble and halfhearted.”

Ahmanson executives could not be reached for comment, but have said in the past that Picus has no power to prevent the extension of Victory Boulevard into their area.

Picus said she fears that commuters seeking shortcuts would use roads through Ahmanson Ranch, such as Victory Boulevard, instead of the Ventura Freeway. Gating the community, she said, would prevent that.

But even homeowners in Picus’ council district complained that a gate might be only a temporary fix. Any closure of Victory Boulevard would have to be permanent, said Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization and a candidate for Picus’ council seat.

“Victory cannot be opened up under any circumstances,” Gross said. “If Victory was gated, what’s to say it would stay that way?”

Some critics said Picus has focused exclusively on the project’s effect on her district, wryly observing that she is chairwoman of the League of California Cities committee on regional government, which tries to promote unified solutions to regional problems.

“My concern is Victory Boulevard,” Picus said of her stand. When asked whether she knew that shutting Victory Boulevard could drive traffic into other communities, she said: “My concern is Victory Boulevard.”

Calabasas City Councilwoman Lesley Devine had invited Picus to participate in a news conference sponsored by an informal coalition of homeowner groups opposing the project. Picus declined.

“She wanted to go a different direction so that’s OK,” Devine said. “There are a lot of elements and impacts from that project. Everybody may have a different area that they think is most important.”

But, she added later: “Calabasas can’t afford to have no regard for its neighbors. We care what happens to them too. I don’t think we can be so provincial to protect only our own neighborhood. What we’ve been asking is to have a regional viewpoint.”

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The draft environmental impact report for the giant Ahmanson Ranch project was released last week to a chorus of criticism from environmentalists and nearby homeowners who complained that the project will clog local streets and damage wildlife habitat. Although the project is situated in eastern Ventura County, many of its negative effects will be most noticeable in Los Angeles County. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the project before the end of the year.