Objections Cited to Newhall Ranch

Plans for the massive Newhall Ranch are short a high school and a middle school, and the developer should pay $9 million more so that current homeowners won’t get stuck with the bill, local school district officials said Friday.

The dispute is the latest threat to the Newhall Land & Farming Co.’s plans to build a 70,000-resident community in north Los Angeles County.

Robert Lee, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, said Newhall Land has agreed to build the structures for a second junior high and a second high school but has declined to fund library books and textbooks, auditoriums, aquatic facilities or football stadiums for those schools, according to Lee.

He said the $9 million in dispute is primarily made up of these costs.

While a spokesman said the company is committed to reaching an agreement, a school official said the district may oppose the entire project, which is expected to break ground in 2000, unless the money gap is closed soon.

Lee said the yearlong negotiations are at a crucial stage.

“We’re very sensitive to not wanting current homeowners to pay for new developments,” Lee said. “They shouldn’t have to foot the bill while the developer makes all the profit. Through mitigation costs, developers have always paid for those things.”

Lee said the costs Newhall Land is unwilling to spend totals about $7 million for the high school and $2 million for the junior high. He said if the negotiations are fruitless next month, the school board will consider several alternatives, which include opposing the project in the environmental impact report.

“This school board has always wanted to play hardball,” Lee said. “They expect [Newhall Land] to pay the full impact of this project.”

The developer has reached an agreement with the Newhall School District to help build five elementary schools for Newhall Ranch, said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for the company.

State law requires developers to contribute $1.72 for each square foot of a proposed project to local school districts.

In the early 1990s, when Los Angeles County and Santa Clarita Valley school district officials realized that was not enough to cover the expected costs of new schools, Newhall Land voluntarily agreed to increase the fees it pays to $2.72 per square foot.

At the heart of the dispute is the firm’s projections that five elementary schools, one junior high and one high school were enough to support the population of the largest master-planned housing development in county history.

But the project, located adjacent to Six Flags Magic Mountain near Valencia, would have 25,218 units sitting on a 19-square-mile site, attracting about 3,000 high school-age children and about 1,600 of junior high age, according to estimates provided by the school district.

The district prefers about 2,000 in its high schools and 1,000 in junior high, Lee said.

Lauffer said the discussions are still ongoing. She said the firm is “committed to reaching an agreement. We are a community builder and we know how important schools are.”