Growth and Development

* Every summer we, the taxpayers, are urged to conserve electricity usage by setting our thermostats up (“Power Struggle,” Aug. 2). And yet they’re going to allow Newhall Ranch and Ahmanson Ranch to be developed?

I don’t get it.

DOROTHY NOBLE

Calabasas

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It seems the 21,000-home [Newhall Ranch] development may proceed if the state approves the diversion of water from Castaic Creek, yet one of the more onerous items I worry about is what plans have tentative approval for ingress and egress for these thousands of people (“Water District Shift May Help Newhall Ranch,” July 30).

If the developer is planning to use Interstate 5 as the main way for them to get to work, God help the buyers of these homes.

Oh yes, they could use California 126 and go to Ventura, or take a drive from Fillmore through the mountains to Thousand Oaks, but that would not give quick access to the San Fernando Valley.

It should be mandatory for the developer and Los Angeles County that a new route through the mountain separating the Santa Clarita Valley from Chatsworth and coming out at Topanga Canyon [Boulevard] at the 118 Freeway be built before the first phase of this mammoth development goes in.

Right now, trying to traverse Interstate 5 to the Valley and beyond is a morning and evening nightmare.

Yes, water is imperative. However, if you have to start for work at 5 a.m. to get to work by 7 a.m. in Los Angeles, then what’s the draw to purchase in Newhall Ranch?

Granted, Newhall Land & Farming Co. is also concentrating on having more businesses move to its industrial parks in Valencia, but how many large companies are going to move there to satisfy workers’ needs?

BARBARA WAYCOTT

Canyon Country