Ranch risk. (Politics).

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association gets behind the tough issues and typically doesn't blink once it does. That includes the push for secession, which it endorsed wholeheartedly, despite deep political and economic risks.

And, typically, VICA takes the road most traveled when

Ahmanson Ranch, however, is another story.

VICA recently sent letters out to the business community reaffirming the association's support for the beleaguered 3,000-home development that has pitted residents against big business for years. As VICA members well know, the project threatens to make the crawl along the 101 corridor one of the worst nightmares to hit the Valley since the Northridge Earthquake.

Environmental impact studies of the project were updated yet, despite pleas from Valley residents who both oppose and support the project, Ahmanson Ranch developers refuse to submit a new traffic study to determine just how bad it may get.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles city officials, including Councilman Dennis Zine, are preparing drafts of the suit they intend to file should the Ventura County Planning Commission approve the latest project study without ordering Ahmanson to look into the traffic problem again.

VICA's reasons for supporting the project are good ones: Mayor Hahn's $100 million housing trust fund isn't going to help anyone if there aren't houses to put people in. Not in this market.

But VICA ought to take it a step further and, if it's going to continue to support the project, throw in support for the traffic study as a caveat, then sit back and see what happens.

If Ahmanson bites, case closed.

If they don't, everyone on the VICA board will then know exactly who they'll be dealing with when that first spade hits the dirt.

Jacqueline Fox is politics reporter for the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. Size can be reached at jfox@sfvbj.com.