Town Council Sues to Stop Tract : Development: Leona Valley officials claim the environmental report submitted to the city of Palmdale for the 7,200 houses was faulty.

Standing in a cherry orchard in full bloom Tuesday morning, members of the Leona Valley Town Council announced that they had filed a lawsuit against a developer and the city of Palmdale, attacking the environmental review of a 7,200-house development planned next to their rural community.

The suit, filed in Lancaster Superior Court on Monday, seeks an injunction preventing any work at the Ritter Ranch site--such as grading or construction--until the issues raised by the suit are resolved in or out of court.

The development has long been opposed by the Leona Valley Town Council on the grounds that its urban character would clash with the orchards, horse corrals and large lots found in the community. Under the developer’s proposal, about a quarter of the houses would be built in the Leona Valley and the rest would stand at its entrance.

Although the Ritter Ranch land lies in unincorporated county territory, the developer is attempting to get it annexed by the city of Palmdale. The Palmdale City Council approved the project’s environmental impact report in February and is scheduled to review a development agreement in May.

Spokesmen for the city of Palmdale and the developer said they had not yet seen the lawsuit and could not comment specifically on its contents.

However, Peter Wenner, general manager of developer Ritter Ranch Associates, said the environmental impact report attacked in the suit was commissioned by the city of Palmdale itself and only paid for by the developer.

“I’m confident that the city of Palmdale, being one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation in recent years, adequately addressed the environmental issues,” Wenner said.

Palmdale City Atty. Bill Rudell described the suit as a delaying tactic, saying that attacking environmental impact reports is “a time-honored way of trying to block any development that adjacent homeowners . . . don’t like.”

But Mary Ann Floyd, a member of the Leona Valley Town Council, said Rudell’s assessment was unfair.

“From the very beginning, we have publicly stated time and time again that we are not seeking to shut down the project,” Floyd said. “We are trying to make sure that that portion that is to be located in Leona Valley is compatible with our area.”

The Town Council won its first victory last week when the county Regional Planning Commission agreed to set up a community standards district for the valley, which would restrict most development to lots of at least two acres. However, the district standards would only apply to the Ritter Ranch development if it remains in the county and is not annexed by Palmdale.

In the lawsuit, the Town Council charges that the environmental report does not adequately explore alternatives to the project, such as a smaller development or one that clusters most of its structures outside Leona Valley.

On Tuesday, at the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley, a previous board decision to approve a water delivery system for the development was reconsidered.

The board decided to postpone a decision two weeks to allow the county Public Works Department to provide more information on why an environmental impact report was not required for the water system, which opponents say will induce growth beyond the Ritter Ranch project.