Model City or Monumental Mistake?

It will either be a prototype for the way people live in the next century, or an abomination. A place where a variety of people will be welcome, or an enclave for the rich. A community that will threaten Southern California’s last wild river, or help save it.

Opponents and proponents do not agree on much about Newhall Ranch, but what is clear is that a mini-city of 70,000 people proposed for the Santa Clarita Valley could herald changes in the way the suburbs of the future will be built.

The theory behind Newhall Ranch is that the lure of small, rural towns tucked away in scenic foothills and valleys would be strong enough to draw urbanites far from the city.

Developers say they would re-create elements of the lifestyle prevalent in Southern California before World War II: shops, restaurants and recreation within walking distance of home; relaxed zoning laws that allow small add-ons to houses for relatives and boarders; proximity to mass transit; and simple luxuries, like a covered porch.

In Newhall Ranch, five distinct villages would be carved between the hillsides of the Santa Susana Mountains and the woodlands near the Santa Clara River.

“What we have the opportunity to do here is to take what we learned in Valencia [a 1950s master planned community nearby], take a brand-new piece of vacant land, and take new information and new regulations to come up with a new design that will be a model for future communities,” said Lee Stark, a planner with the county’s Regional Planning Department who has worked on the project for two years.

The Newhall Ranch development--if approved--would be the largest master planned community in Los Angeles County history. Over the next 25 to 30 years, the project would extend the sprawl of Los Angeles over 19 square miles into an area that is now mostly open space, but is also used for farming, oil drilling and ranching.

Portions of the area along the river and in the mountains have been declared significant ecological areas by the state, and include the habitats of two federally endangered species. The planners say they would largely avoid those areas.

But what has also raised the concerns of opponents is that plans call for building homes into portions of the Santa Clara River’s flood plain.

So while environmentalists worry about losing the area’s last wild river, residents fear the possibility of flooding during heavy storms. And downstream, everyone from farmers to surfers have voiced concerns about the quality of water and the kinds of material that may wash onto beaches in Ventura County.

“The river valley,” said Ron Bottorff, president of the Friends of the Santa Clara River, “is a regional resource of exceptional value: for its agriculture, for its scenery and for its wildlife. Massive urban projects simply do not belong in this valley.”

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The environmental concerns of Newhall Land & Farming Co., which owns the land, have been questioned before. In 1991, the company agreed to pay nearly $400,000 in fines and repair costs after it altered the course of the river above the proposed development and two tributaries and disturbed the habitat of the two endangered species.

Opponents of the project have also raised concerns about traffic, earthquakes, air pollution and the availability of adequate water sources to support a town that could grow to be triple the size of Agoura Hills or San Fernando.

To undercut the environmental criticisms, Newhall Land, has pledged 5,852 acres of the land as permanent natural space and promised to donate the Asistencia San Francisco Xavier to a conservation organization once the project is approved. The Asistencia is a small mission that was the first European settlement in northern Los Angeles County.

The Newhall Ranch project is pending before the county’s Regional Planning Commission, which rarely rejects developments. But even if the development is approved by the commission and the Board of Supervisors, it might take several years before various state and federal agencies sign off and construction begins. The politically influential Newhall Land firm hopes to break ground in 2000.

The developer is banking on the design of Newhall Ranch to help win approval and to attract people to a total of 25,218 single family homes, luxury houses, condominiums and townhomes once the community is finished in about 2030.

Newhall Land says it would spare all but 4% of the area’s 16,314 oak trees and use the river as the centerpiece of the development and neither divert it nor encase it in concrete.

Further, the company says the development would expand the habitat of the endangered least Bell’s vireo, a bird that lives in the willow trees along the river, and the three-spined stickleback fish that live upriver, by replacing the farmland along the riverbanks with open space. Newhall Land, which has owned the property for more than a century, delayed development until the Southern California housing market began to recover.

The company hired marketing firms to conduct surveys of thousands of people. Futurists were consulted. Psychographic data was collected.

What researchers found was that people “are looking for a hometown America in a sense, though maybe some have never seen it,” said Toni Alexander, president of Newport Beach-based InterCommunications Inc., which performed the marketing duties for Newhall Land. “So we asked them, ‘What do you need here to make you feel good about living here?’ ”

Ninety-eight percent said they wanted to live close to nature. Nearly half said they wanted a real community that provides a chance to interact with neighbors. Vast majorities said they wanted entertainment opportunities, to feel safe, and to avoid the homogeneity of many of today’s suburban tracts.

So Newhall Land is marketing the project as “A community by nature”: in addition to the river, there is an extensive trail system, 274 acres of parks and an artificial 15-acre lake surrounded by the Santa Susanas--where coyotes can be heard howling at night.

A community organizer would arrange events for adults, and there would be a variety of housing sizes and styles and an 18-hole golf course. Each village would have a town center with shops, restaurants and night life.

Business parks would be placed adjacent to most of the villages, and residents would be encouraged to walk or bike to work via the trails, or to work at home instead of commuting. For those unlucky enough to need to travel to Los Angeles, there would be links to public transit.

But some critics doubt that this so-called New Urban style can work effectively so far from the central city. “The focus on suburbs needs to be counterbalanced by a focus on the city,” said Jerold Kayden, associate professor of urban planning at Harvard University. “The New Urbanism cannot address all of society’s ills. And many of the [New Urban] suburbs mirror the makeup of existing suburbs, though the planners may claim differently.”

For instance, Laguna West, a New Urban-styled suburban development south of Sacramento, is having trouble filling its homes.

Closer to home, critics have focused less on theory and more on specifics of Newhall Land’s plans.

Although Newhall Land says it is seeking a diverse populous for its suburb of the future, the company has angered some by attempting to place Newhall Ranch’s seven planned schools in the whiter, wealthier Newhall School District instead of allowing some of the schools to join the more diverse Castaic School District.

Newhall Land officials say they simply want all the Newhall Ranch children to be in the same district to add a greater sense of community. Also skeptical is the city of Santa Clarita, which is bracing for the possible addition of 70,000 people to an area with a population of 150,000.

“There’s a substantial concern about the number of units in this project and others that would have accumulative effect on the quality of life, the infrastructure and the river,” said George Caravalho, city manager for Santa Clarita.

In Ventura County, officials are concerned enough about the project to spend $80,000 to study the development’s potential impact. County officials and some cities that are conducting their own reviews are questioning the project’s effect on everything from air quality and traffic to affordable housing and urban runoff.

Despite the opposition, Newhall Land is confident. “We think this is a very good project and we believe that it addresses all of the concerns, environmental and otherwise,” said Marlee Lauffer, a Newhall Land spokeswoman.

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The Newhall Ranch Project

* Projected population: 70,000.

* Size: 11,963 acres.

* Number of units: 25,218.

* Open space: 5,852.

* Neighborhood parks: 274 acres.

* Other amenities: A lake, 200-acre business park and golf course.

* Schools: One high school, one middle school and eight elementary schools.

* Projected completion date: 2023, 25 to 30 years after construction begins.