Newhall Ranch Project

I was interested to read in the Nov. 28 article on Newhall Ranch (“Newhall Ranch Project Fits New Suburban Trend”) that The Times, like Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s motion of Nov. 24, continued to omit one of the major players in this project’s controversial approval process, the environmental community. There was no mention in the event timeline of the press conference held Aug. 22, 1996, to announce the opposition of 17 major and local environmental organizations, including the NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council], Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Native Plant Society, Friends of the Santa Clara River and Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and Environment. There was no mention of representatives from those groups attending the many public meetings to ask for flood plain protection and a larger buffer zone for the river. There was no mention of their firm opposition to this project due to a lack of water supply and impacts to agriculture; no mention of their concern over need for the project when there is already a backlog of 40,000 unbuilt but approved units in the Santa Clarita Valley. . . . There was no mention of the many demonstrations, letters and thousands of signatures gathered in opposition to this project or the statewide campaigns to curb urban sprawl.

Yes, some supervisors’ aides met with leaders of the environmental community and with state and federal resource agencies, but their concerns, along with those of Ventura County, were not addressed by the few concessions made in the final approval. These groups were not even mentioned by Antonovich as concerned parties. I suspect the county will find the environmental community to be a formidable foe as efforts to build this project continue, and may regret this failure to negotiate.

LYNNE A. PLAMBECK, First Vice President, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment

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The greed of Newhall Land & Farming Co. knows no bounds. I moved to Santa Clarita in 1984 to attend school, and since then I have seen its beautiful open areas and oaks plowed and paved over at an alarming rate, to be replaced by ugly housing tracts. I doubt Newhall Land & Farming will stop until every last inch of open area is gone. Traffic on the I-5, which is already very heavy during rush hour, will become intolerable with 70,000 new residents north of the Newhall Pass.

I’m not religious, but if I were, I’d pray that Ventura County is able to stop them through litigation. It’s obvious that the Board of Supervisors will simply rubber-stamp everything Newhall Land & Farming puts in front of them, with only a token show of resistance.

ROZILYN GIBSON, Valencia