Newhall Ranch Has Planners’ Support

After reviewing 43 boxes of environmental documents for the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch subdivision, Los Angeles County planning officials have determined that the developer has nothing to hide and they are recommending approval of the project at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

The review of the material was requested in March by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who said he was “troubled” by Newhall Land & Farming Co.’s treatment of the San Fernando Valley spineflower. The district attorney’s office recently agreed to drop a criminal investigation into allegations that the company destroyed the endangered plant, in exchange for Newhall Land’s promise to create a 64-acre spineflower preserve.

But critics of the project said the company’s handling of the spineflower should call into question its environmental reporting. So in recent weeks, the county planning staff reviewed supporting materials from consultants on the project. In a memo to supervisors, the planners announced they had found the materials were “consistent with the information disclosed in the Newhall Ranch environmental documentation.”

Newhall spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said the finding didn’t surprise her. It “reemphasizes that everything we’re doing is appropriate and by the book,” she said.

Newhall Ranch was initially endorsed by supervisors in 1999, and remains the largest housing project ever approved in county history. But Ventura County and environmentalists sued to block it, and a Kern County judge ruled that environmental documents had to be rewritten to address a number of issues, including whether there was enough water for the project.

Since the supervisors’ review of the first round of changes to the environmental documents in March, Newhall Land and county planners have tweaked the plans in other ways to meet the concerns of Kern County Superior Court Judge Roger D. Randall, who must still sign off on the project, and the supervisors themselves.

Because Newhall Land is using a private supplier for some of its water -- a move that concerned water activists -- the county is now proposing to give the local Castaic Lake Water Agency greater oversight over those contracts. The size of the spineflower preserves, meanwhile, will be expanded, and the county will be granted greater access to Newhall Land’s environmental documents.

On Friday, Yaroslavsky, who voted for the project in 1999, said he still had major concerns about Newhall Ranch that he would raise at today’s meeting.The supervisors will meet at 1 p.m. in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles.