High Profile Coalition Launches Campaign to Stop Washington Mutual's Plans to Build ``New City''...

Entertainment Editors

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Nov. 14, 2001

Promise of Increased Traffic and Environmental Destruction at

Ahmanson Ranch Site Brings Group Together

A broad-based, high profile coalition of Ventura County and Los Angeles

"I am proud to join "Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch" to fight what I see as a grave injustice perpetuated by a company that supposedly prides itself on corporate responsibility and claims to be a friendly neighbor to the people of Southern California," said activist, actor and director Rob Reiner, a founding leader of Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, the group forming today. "Today we join forces to call upon Washington Mutual to abandon this disastrous project and to save our beautiful Santa Monica Mountains."

Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch will spotlight the misinformation in Washington Mutual's lavish campaign to force officials to approve the massive development. The group is calling upon Ventura County's Board of Supervisors to recognize that, by law, it must order a new Environmental Impact Report (EIR) due to new information concerning the project's impact on traffic and the environment.

"We want the truth about this project disclosed," said Chris Albrecht, President of Original Programming at HBO. "Washington Mutual doesn't want the public to know how its `new city' will affect water quality and they continue to hide information about the impact of 45,000 more cars on the area's highways."

"Government should not be Washington Mutual's partners in concealment," Albrecht added. "We call upon the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to act honorably and correct the mistakes of the previous Board that passed the original development deal in 1992. The deal ignores California's environmental laws, and the people of Southern California should not be forced to live with it."

The proposed Washington Mutual development will be located in the southeastern corner of Ventura County directly west of Hidden Hills, and will hover above Malibu and Calabasas. According to state and local officials, the development will generate 45,000 additional car trips every day on the Ventura Freeway (101), Pacific Coast Highway and connector roads, destroy popular Surfrider Beach, consume 2,800 acres of open land, kick up 23,000 tons of dust, and generate 20 tons of new air pollutants to darken the skies and clog the lungs of Los Angeles and the region.

In addition to its environmental claims, Washington Mutual touts Ahmanson Ranch as a model project that will address the region's critical shortage of affordable housing. However, their advertising and lobbying campaigns fail to point out that 80 percent of the housing will be for luxury homeowners, and not for the firefighters, police, and teachers Washington Mutual claims will occupy their homes. The remaining 20 percent primarily consists of SRO housing for golf course employees, and units located on luxury home lots, which assuredly will never go on the open market. With rare exceptions, only family members and domestic workers will occupy these units.

"A project that destroys 1,300 oak trees and builds a massive development in one our last rural areas doesn't deserve to be called a model of anything smart," said Thousand Oaks City Councilmember Linda Parks, one of many elected officials in both counties supporting Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch's goals.

"Through their persistence to ram through this development, Washington Mutual Bank has ignored the concerns voiced by Southern Californians," added actor Martin Sheen, another supporter of the group.

"If this proposed massive development goes forward, the headwaters of Malibu Creek will be destroyed, the fragile ecosystem of Malibu Creek and Lagoon will further degrade, and ongoing efforts to clean up pollution at Malibu Surfrider Beach will be for naught," said Heal the Bay Executive Director Dr. Mark Gold. "With so much at stake, how could Washington Mutual go forward with this project without even assessing the impacts of building this new city?"

Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch will focus on educating the public about Washington Mutual's proposed development and to counter Washington Mutual Bank's lavish and misleading campaign designed to ram through its disastrous development scheme for the Ahmanson Ranch site. Further, the Coalition hopes to persuade the Ventura County's Board of Supervisors that the public deserves to know the truth about the massive project's impact. A new Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is the only legal way to disclose to the public how Washington Mutual's plans will affect regional traffic congestion and the environment. To learn more about the organization, visit its Web site at www.rallyfortheranch.org.