Council Votes to Fight Newhall Ranch Project

SANTA CLARITA —  The City Council voted Tuesday night to urge Los Angeles County planners to withhold approval of plans for the 25,000-home Newhall Ranch development.

By a vote of 5 to 0, the council directed Councilwoman Jill Klajic to read a statement of objections to the project at a hearing by the County Regional Planning Commission on Thursday.

Klajic said she believes the other council members supported her motion because they believe the developer, Newhall Land & Farming Co., had shown unwillingness to compromise on any of the city’s concerns.

The motion calls Newhall Ranch “unbridled urban sprawl” and contends that the project, just outside the city limits near Magic Mountain, would harm the environment and does not adequately offset the impact it would have on Santa Clarita’s already overburdened facilities and services.

Newhall Land has said that the company believes the new community would be a good neighbor and would provide many benefits to the environment.

The planned development would create a mini-city of 70,000, the largest master-planned community in Los Angeles County history, extending from Santa Clarita to the Ventura County line.

In Ventura meanwhile, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board moved Tuesday night to send to Los Angeles County officials a letter complaining that a study of the proposed development virtually ignores the project’s impact on the neighboring county.

“The EIR kind of pretended that Ventura County didn’t exist at all,” said district planner Chuck Thomas.

Los Angeles County’s Department of Regional Planning will accept comments on the report’s current draft until Feb. 11.

A final draft will incorporate those comments.

During a pollution control board meeting Tuesday, members and district staff pointed to a series of what they considered flaws in the report, which they said must examine the effects on Ventura County’s air. Construction, expected to take 25 years, could send dust drifting down the Santa Clara River valley, possibly causing such health problems as San Joaquin Valley fever, which is caused by soil-dwelling spores that can be inhaled in the dust from excavations.

Board members also complained that current projections for the amount of traffic Newhall Ranch will dump onto Ventura County roads are too low.

The report states that only 2% of the average daily vehicle trips coming from the new neighborhoods will enter Ventura County, but the Ventura County Transportation Commission believes the actual figure would be closer to 4%, or 15,480 new trips each day on Ventura County roads.

Several board members also complained that by adding pollution to Ventura County’s air, the project would force the county to place tougher controls on local businesses that pollute, in effect punishing county businesses for Newhall Ranch’s pollution.

The air pollution board is made up of the county Board of Supervisors and five city officials from throughout the county. The Board of Supervisors has not taken a position on Newhall Ranch.