Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : City Frets Over Input to Newhall Ranch Report : Development: Comment period for environmental document is called too short for large-scale project.

Already nervous about the potential side effects of the mammoth Newhall Ranch project proposed for a site just west of here, Santa Clarita officials now fear that they and others will have little chance to shape the development’s environmental impact report.

A notice of preparation--a procedural document that announces the preparation of an environmental impact report and invites the public to recommend specific areas for study--was distributed for Newhall Ranch on Dec. 27.

Residents and agencies have until Jan. 26 to submit their comments.

Concerned that the 30-day period might be too short, Santa Clarita officials wrote a letter to Los Angeles County planners requesting that it be extended to 60 days.

“The city has been watching this and is prepared to comment,” said Don Williams, a Santa Clarita senior planner. “Our concern is that there are state, federal and other local agencies that this will be the first time they’ve heard of it.”

Agencies may not have enough time to respond, Williams said, because the notice was made public during the holidays.

“It really does not promote public input,” Williams said. Thirty days “is pretty standard for a project. However, this isn’t a standard-sized project.”

As proposed by the Newhall Land & Farming Co., Newhall Ranch would cover 19 square miles west of Six Flags Magic Mountain and would ultimately be the size of Santa Clarita’s Valencia community, which the company also built.

Plans call for construction of 22,300 homes housing 70,000 people. The development would also include a 200-acre business park, a 215-acre golf course, 172 cumulative acres of parkland and sites for eight elementary schools, a high school and a junior high school.

Lee Stark, a regional planner for Los Angeles County, said the comment period won’t be extended because later statements will be included as well.

“I don’t think there is any need to formally extend the deadline,” said Stark. “If comments come in two, four, six weeks after the deadline, we’re still going to include them in the process.”

James Harter, an executive vice president for Newhall Land who is overseeing the Newhall Ranch project, said he doesn’t mind a longer comment period, but that it would probably make no difference.

“I don’t anticipate that they will find a subject we haven’t,” Harter said.

Newhall Land officials hope to have Newhall Ranch reviewed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the fall of 1996 and begin construction by 1998.