Guest columnists
Classic urban sprawl

By Rob Reiner and Robert Pregulman
Special to The Times

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Imagine if an out-of-state bank came to Seattle and proposed to construct a massive commercial and residential resort development overlooking Snoqualmie Falls.

Imagine that this development would add 45,000 cars a day to traffic congestion on Interstate 90, and would forever destroy the Seattle area's precious open space. Also imagine this development would add 840 tons of pollution to the air each year and increase water pollution to dangerous levels. Residents would raise an outcry to protect the environment and their quality of life.

Washington Mutual's plan to build a sprawling, 10,000-person luxury housing complex — complete with two golf courses, a resort hotel and 400,000 square feet of shopping centers and office space — at the headwaters of Malibu Creek in the pristine Santa Monica Mountains will have all these effects on one of Southern California's last remaining open spaces.

Despite the opposition of socially responsible investors, every major environmental group, dozens of elected officials, hundreds of community groups and thousands of concerned citizens, Washington Mutual continues to spin the Ahmanson Ranch project as "smart growth" and a solution to Southern California's affordable-housing crisis.

Yet, this disastrous development flies in the face of the notion of smart growth. It is classic urban sprawl. In addition, four out of five of the proposed homes will cost $800,000 to $2 million. This luxury housing development is not affordable, nor is it the answer to anyone's housing crisis.

When Washington Mutual entered California's banking market five years ago, Golden State residents embraced the company's "friend of the family" values. Californians responded to its emphasis on customer service and were grateful for being spared surcharges on ATM transactions.

So why has our "family friend" taken up the business of destroying our open space and creating urban sprawl?

There is a simple solution that would be beneficial both to the people of Southern California and to Washington Mutual.

Washington Mutual did not start this project; it inherited this nightmare in 1998 with its acquisition of Home Savings and Loan of America. Home Savings had been pushing to build the disastrous development despite widespread community opposition. Washington Mutual now has the opportunity to do the right thing by agreeing to preserve this treasured land as open space.

If Washington Mutual stops this development it will save Southern California from:

• Paving over of 2,800 acres of open land;

• 45,000 additional car trips every day on some of the most-congested roads in the region (a 50-percent traffic increase on Highway 101 and connector roads);

• The kicking up of 20,000 tons of dust — enough to fill Husky Stadium 50 times — and the generation of 840 tons of new air pollutants a year that will add smog and clog our lungs.

• The leveling of 1,300 old oaks and the destruction of the natural habitat for five endangered species.

Washington Mutual is a good company doing a very bad thing, but it's not too late to do the right thing. We ask for the support of Washington Mutual shareholders and the residents of Seattle in our efforts to stop Washington Mutual's transformation from a good neighbor into a corporate villain.

We must act immediately, because once the first bulldozer grazes the land, this open space is gone forever, and with it goes Washington Mutual's reputation for community goodwill.

A powerful coalition of citizens, elected officials, community groups and environmental organizations including the city of Los Angeles, the county of Los Angeles, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Heal the Bay have already joined in opposition to this disastrous development.

Now it is your turn to take action. You can send a letter directly to Washington Mutual's CEO, Kerry Killinger, by logging onto http://www.stopwashingtonmutual.com/.

The collective voice of concerned citizens and shareholders can convince Washington Mutual to abandon this destructive development.

Rob Reiner is an actor, director and co-chairman of Rally to Save the Ranch. Robert Pregulman is the executive director of WashPIRG, a public-interest advocacy organization.

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

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