A Rich Suitor Once Again Proves Irresistible

Will she or won’t she?

That was the question of the day.

Will the radiant local girl say “I do” to a multimillionaire real estate developer she couldn’t possibly love?

Will she vow to be his until the end of time--even if her friends and family think she’s a fool to give herself away in this tawdry ceremony?

Will the cash be enough to sway her?

It was!

That’s why the radiant city of Fillmore pledged to love, honor and cherish--or at the very least, not to sue--the developer of the massive Newhall Ranch project just down the road.

Her price: $300,000.

For less money than it takes to build a decent butler’s pantry, Fillmore dropped out of Ventura County’s lawsuit over the largest development ever planned for Southern California.

Fillmore also pledged not to sue the developer, Newhall Land & Farming, over the project ever again. Till death do them part.

If this were “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” Fillmore and the multimillionaire real estate developer would dance giddily into the tropical sunset for at least a minute and a half before the annulment papers flew.

But it’s not “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”

The name of the game at hand is “Who Wants to Harry a Multi-Millionaire?”--an appropriate response when a multimillionaire real estate developer wishes to deposit 70,000 happy residents in groves and meadows just over the county line.

Alarmed by the birth of a monster on its doorstep, Ventura County has gone to court. Its lawsuit accuses Los Angeles County of subdividing land illegally, failing to secure enough water for the project and performing the kind of environmental studies usually required for backyard forts and lemonade stands.

The county was joined in the suit by a slew of local agencies, plus the cities of Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Paula and--until days ago--Fillmore, the city closest to the colossal project.

With the lawsuit to be tried next week, you’d think county officials would be angered by Fillmore’s eleventh-hour desertion.

And you’d be right.

John Flynn, never a county supervisor to mince words, called the move “unethical” and said Fillmore was “bought out.”

Kathy Long, the supervisor representing the city and a vigorous Newhall Ranch opponent, was more restrained.

“It’s unfortunate,” she said, adding that she tried three times to talk the City Council out of accepting Newhall’s offer.

But $300,000 is a pile of cash for a city with emergency reserves of less than $500,000 and a general fund of just $3 million. It would pay for a few more traffic lights on California 126, a road that will grow even less safe as the teeming masses motor to and from Newhall Ranch.

Unfortunately for Fillmore, the money won’t be available until the first Newhall Ranch building permit is approved. With lawsuits upon lawsuits in the wings, that will be years down the road.

Will $300,000 be enough green for even one stoplight? Time will tell.

City spokesman Steve Clary said he’d heard from a few Fillmore residents who “don’t completely understand” the city’s reasoning.

I’m confused, too. If I were living just an orange toss away from the biggest development ever in Southern California, I’d be concerned not just about traffic but also about water and smog and congestion and mini-malls metastasizing all over the lovely landscape.

But who am I to judge what Fillmore and her multimillionaire should be concerned about? As the poets say, love is blind.

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Steve Chawkins can be reached at 653-7561 or by e-mail at steve.chawkins@latimes.com.