SANTA CLARITA : Groups Sue Over Westridge Project

The Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE) has filed a lawsuit challenging the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ approval of the planned 1,880-house Westridge residential development in Stevenson Ranch, just west of Santa Clarita.

The suit was filed Oct. 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court and joined by the Sierra Club and Stevenson Ranch Residents for Responsible Development. It does not seek to stop the project but to scale it down or move it out of a county-designated Significant Ecological Area, SCOPE officials said.

SCOPE co-founder Allan Cameron of Santa Clarita contended Thursday that the county, in approving the project Sept. 3, did not adequately address concerns such as the environment, schools and infrastructure.

Jo Anne Darcy, field representative for county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said the development would benefit the community by providing jobs. “The developer did work with the community in leaving three-quarters of the SEA open in perpetuity,” she said.

Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for the developer, Newhall Land & Farming Co., criticized the suit as “a very sad, last-minute attempt by a small group of people to slow down a project that has widespread benefit to the community.” Those benefits, she said, include jobs, at least $15 million in road improvements, a public golf course and 250 acres of open space.

The county has 30 days to respond to the suit, said attorney Susan Durbin of SCOPE, adding that the organization expects a court hearing early next year.