Newhall Ranch Project Moves to the Litigation Phase

Approval on March 23, 1999 of the somewhat-modified (21,600 unit) Newhall Ranch Specific Plan by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ends a two-year review of the project by both the Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The Specific Plan, as now configured, addresses some of the concerns of FSCR. Very substantial concerns remain, however. Sadly, over the course of multiple hearings, we were able to convince neither the Regional Planning Commission nor the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that these concerns were worthy issues, and the courts have now become our only recourse. Consequently, FSCR filed suit against Los Angeles County on April 22, 1999, which appropriately was also Earth Day, 1999. Ventura County also filed suit, primarily on issues of an inadequate Environmental Impact Report and violations of the Subdivision Map Act (the parcel used to carve out Newhall Ranch extends well into Ventura County).

FSCR's specific concerns covered on our complaint include those below.

Concretization of Tributary Streams
The Newhall Ranch drainage plan calls for encapsulation in concrete of any tributary stream of under 2,000 cubic feet per second maximum flow. These ephemeral streams (flowing only during wet periods) provide significant wetland and wildlife corridor areas. Army Corps of Engineers permits would be required for encapsulation, and if permitted at all, would require compensating mitigation. FSCR believes these streams should be considered as amenities and left "as is", with adequate buffering. Obviously, Newhall Ranch management just wants them out of the way.

Inadequate River Buffers
Although the width of the river and riparian buffer zone apparently has been increased to 100 feet in most areas in the modified project, the buffer issue remains of great concern to FSCR. Some river species need much wider buffers than 100 feet, and, additionally, 100 feet is clearly not adequate to protect riparian wildlife from domestic pet predation in urbanized areas. The recommendation of a 500-foot riparian buffer zone by the California Department of Fish and Game has never been been adequately addressed in any of the environmental documentation.

Floodplain Intrusion
FSCR has commented extensively in letters and public testimony about the fact the project will remove over 300 acres of the floodplain of the Santa Clara River via filling operations. New developments now indicate that this type of filling may become illegal. On October 14, 1998, changes were proposed in the Federal Register covering Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permits (NWP) that would prevent above-grade fills within the floodplain of jurisdictional waters. That is, no permanent fills above the existing ground surface would be authorized by any NWP within the 100-year floodplain as identified on FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps. Adoption of this policy would necessitate very substantial revisions to the Newhall Ranch project, since about 1400 homes are situated on floodplain fill.

Impacts to the Southern Steelhead
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has not yet completed a survey of the Santa Clara River to positively identify areas of the river affected by the listing of the Steelhead as a federally endangered species. Although it may turn out that the river upstream of Piru Creek is not used as a primary migration corridor by steelhead, the Newhall Ranch project could nevertheless cause significant impacts to steelhead and other aquatic species via the massive grading (almost 100 million cubic yards) and subsequent sediment release to the river involved in doing the project.

Wildlife Corridors
Although a larger high country-to-river wildlife corridor has been allowed in the revised project, no protection of the Ventura County portion of Salt Creek Canyon, the major corridor, is included in project plans. This must be corrected, particularly in view of the fact that the impacts to biological resources remain as one of the Significant and Unmitigable Impacts of the project.

Inadequate Water Supply
Newhall Ranch has identified only about half of the projected water needs for the project. Further, a Public Utilities Commission hearing process is currently underway to determine whether the Valencia Water Company, the water purveyor to the Newhall Ranch project, is overcommitted and cannot legally service the project. Ventura County Supervisors have identified overpumping of the alluvial and Saugus aquifers as their primary concern with the project. Pumping of these aquifers could occur during drought years, and a drop in groundwater level of only ten feet has the potential of closing off all underground flow to Ventura County aquifers.

Cumulative Impacts
The combination of the Newhall Ranch project, the Valencia development covered under the 404/1603 Permit/Agreement currently under review by the Corps of Engineers, plus the expansion of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill expansion have not been viewed nor analyzed in the FEIR as the significant regional impact which they constitute.

Need for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
At a meeting in April 1998 with Dave Vannatta of Supervisor Antonovich's office, representatives of resource agencies expressed concern that they would not be able to give approval to many project activities as proposed and believed that an EIS at this stage would be appropriate. Dealing with agency concerns prior to Board of Supervisors approval was considered highly preferable to attempts to "piece-meal" future approvals as part of individual projects within the Specific Plan.

FSCR remains completely unconvinced of the need for this project, in view of the 40,000-plus already approved, but unbuilt, units in the Santa Clarita region. This is particularly true since Newhall Ranch requires a CEQA Statement of Overriding Considerations for impacts to agriculture, air quality, biology, solid waste, and visual qualities. Justifications for overriding considerations simply do not exist at this time. Moreover, recent overwhelming support for the Ventura County SOAR initiatives and polls in Los Angeles County showing strong opposition to sprawl projects like Newhall Ranch mean that it truly is time for "Smart Growth" concepts to be substituted for sprawl in Los Angeles County planning.

Approval of the Newhall Ranch project follows long-standing tradition in Los Angeles County wherein powerful developers achieve success in the approval process through campaign contributions to key candidates and ensuring that such entities as local water boards and planning commissions are dominated by development-oriented officials.