2 Counties Discuss Newhall Proposal

Worried that an influx of more than 70,000 new residents along the county line could harm Ventura County, local leaders met Monday with members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to voice their concerns.

Ventura County Supervisors Judy Mikels and Kathy Long joined their counterparts in Los Angeles to discuss how the proposed Newhall Land Co. project would hurt Ventura County’s air quality, water quality, traffic, wildlife and agricultural lands, among other things.

Mikels and Long said they wanted to meet with Los Angeles County supervisors because they thought the concerns of residents in Ventura County had not yet been included in the planning of the proposed 25,000-home development.

Planned for the rural area along the line separating Los Angeles and Ventura counties near Santa Clarita, the housing project could bring as many as 70,000 residents and includes plans for more than 5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space.

Mikels and Long said they considered it imperative to impress Ventura County’s concerns on Los Angeles leaders before their board’s March 24 meeting on the development.

“We have been trying for the last 18 months to get Los Angeles County planning staff or Newhall representatives to acknowledge and address the impacts this massive project will have on Ventura County,” Long said. “So far, those efforts have fallen on deaf ears.”

During Monday’s meeting, Mikels and Long presented the highlights of a 200-page environmental report on the project, along with a resolution from the Ventura Council of Governments opposing the development as it is currently proposed.