[SCOPE] – The California Supreme Court justices heard arguments Sept. 2 on the California Fish and Wildlife Department River permit for the Newhall Ranch project, and then also accepted a petition to hear the challenge made to the county’s approval of Landmark Village – the first 1,444-unit phase of the Newhall Ranch project – a few weeks later.

Now Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) and other groups – Center for Biological Diversity, Ventura Coast Keepers, Friends of the Santa Clara River and the California Native Plant Society – will ask that the Court also accept a review of the 4,000-unit Mission Village tract, as well.

These first two phases will pave over the floodplain and farm fields along the Santa Clara River west of I-5, but the Mission Village project is especially egregious because it will place 4000 homes over old oil wells on land that was once a producing oil field. That is not to mention adding another 4000 units while current residents of the Santa Clarita Valley are being asked to cut back their water use by 28%

A decision by the Court on the River Permit case is expected by early December. Many of the issues of contention in the Mission project are similar to those already before the Court in the other two cases, so there is some expectation that the Court will take up this case too. For more information on Newhall Ranch legal actions click here to view the press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

SCOPE believes that allowing this project to move forward in a drought would not only promote more urban sprawl that adds to global warming and our already poor air quality, but also add to our water woes by its land use patterns, water use, loss of flood plains and ground water re-charge areas. And, of course we would also lose habitat for the many endangered species in the area. Newhall claims that there will be no significant increase in greenhouse gases for 21,000 additional housing units.