Newhall Ranch Project
Re “Regional Concerns Are Foremost,” Ventura County editorials, April 11.
San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services provides legal services to the 350,000 poor people in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Our office represents Los Angeles County residents who will be harmed if the Newhall Ranch development is permitted to proceed. With the California Rural Legal Assistance, which represents low-income residents of Ventura County, and the Public Interest Law Project, our office submitted comments to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in opposition to the Newhall Ranch project.
Consequently, we read your editorial with great interest. In our view, the piece starts with the correct premise but ultimately misses the mark. We agree that a regional perspective on development following a well thought-out plan, which carefully examines environmental, water and transportation concerns, makes sense. However, given The Times’ past editorials on the urgent need to address the affordable-housing crisis, the absence of any recognition of the very serious impact the Newhall Ranch development would have on the supply of affordable housing in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is surprising.
According to Los Angeles County’s own General Plan and Housing Element documents, which set forth the plans for meeting the housing needs of all economic sectors of the community, the county falls 13,000 units short of meeting its low- and very low-income housing needs without Newhall Ranch. If Newhall Ranch were developed as currently proposed, it would increase this need by nearly one-third, or 4,400 units. These numbers illustrate the relative meaninglessness of the developer’s proposal to build 440 affordable units as mitigation, which incidentally does not include any units for very, very low-income persons, namely many of the laborers, housecleaners and child-care providers who would be essential to support the residents and infrastructure of Newhall Ranch.
The lack of sufficient affordable housing in Newhall Ranch would force large numbers of low-income residents to commute long distances from areas where they could afford housing to areas where jobs were created or were emerging, resulting in increased traffic congestion and more air pollution.
NEAL S. DUDOVITZ and R. MONA TAWATAO, San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services Inc., Pacoima