Newhall Ranch Project

Your recent editorial entitled “A Dearth of Cooperation,” (Nov. 29) presents a skewed picture of the negotiations between Los Angeles County and Ventura County concerning the Newhall Ranch proposal. Moreover, they are in marked contrast to your Aug. 2 editorial in which you acknowledged, “The board homed in on each of the many criticisms raised by opponents and sought to ease at least some of the negative effects feared by . . . civic leaders.” That editorial also acknowledged that those additional restrictions were, to use your word, “significant.”

The facts are that we understood Ventura County’s concerns and made a good-faith effort to address them. I met face-to-face with Ventura County Supervisors John Flynn, Kathy Long and Judy Mikels to discuss their concerns, and my office arranged two separate meetings between county staff (including my planning deputy) and Ventura County staff to discuss the Ventura County concerns. Long acknowledged these efforts at our Los Angeles County board meeting.

With respect to the ground water issue in particular, your editorial failed to acknowledge the changes to the design that resulted from those meetings. Since the board’s concept approval requires the developer to submit specific land division proposals for public hearings before any building can occur, we added a requirement that the applicant both identify the source of water and demonstrate that the development will not result in a loss of ground water delivered across the county line to Ventura County as a part of the application for those approvals. This information must be part of the subsequent specific environmental analysis for discussion at future public hearings. A ground water monitoring study was also required as part of the approval.

At Ventura County’s request, we also added an affordable housing component that includes very-low-income units, and a greatly strengthened buffer requirement protecting Ventura County agricultural interests.

MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH, Supervisor, 5th District