Michael A. Kotch, 52; Environmental Activist

Michael A. Kotch, 52, an environmental activist who spoke out against rampant development in the fast-growing Santa Clarita Valley, died Sunday at his home in Castaic. The cause of death was not announced.

Kotch was the co-founder and, from 1993 to 2000, president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, or SCOPE, one of the area’s best-known environmental groups.

Under his watch, SCOPE achieved one of its biggest victories in 1993, when it successfully sued Newhall Land & Farming Co. in Los Angeles Superior Court for its failure to adequately fund schools and libraries to serve a 1,900-home development the firm planned to build in Santa Clarita.

In the mid-and late 1990s, Kotch also served on the boards of the Newhall County Water District and the Castaic Lake Water Agency, on which he argued that plans for new neighborhoods were outstripping water supplies.

Kotch, an Ohio native, was a graduate of MIT. He worked for more than two decades as an engineer at the information technology company Unisys, where he designed aerospace communications systems and a computer system for police cars.