The developer of the Valencia expansion west of Interstate 5 won’t have to redo its water supply or greenhouse gas analyses, an appellate panel has ruled.
Two environmental groups, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) and Friends of the Santa Clara River, were suing developer Five Point Holdings LLC and the county of Los Angeles on grounds that the reviews of the project’s impacts on the local water supply and climate change were outdated.
The Superior Court ruled in Five Point’s favor in January, and in April, the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling.
Five Point revealed the appellate court decision in a quarterly earnings statement filed Monday with the SEC.
SCOPE and the Friends of the River were the two holdouts after most litigants, including the Center for Biological Diversity, settled with Five Point in 2017. The environmental organizations had scored a court victory in 2015 that compelled Five Point to alter its plans for its Mission Village and Landmark Village phases south of Highway 126. Under the 2017 settlement, Five Point agreed, among other things, to set aside more land as wildlife habitat; stabilize the river and protect the endangered unarmored threespine stickleback fish; and curb greenhouse gas emissions through a “Net Zero” program that would include 10,000 solar installations.
SCOPE and the Friends of the River didn’t agree to the settlement. Instead they pursued further litigation that apparently came to an end in April.
“In April 2020, the Court of Appeal issued a ruling affirming the Superior Court’s judgment in favor of the company (Five Point) and Los Angeles County,” Five Point reported.
As expected, Five Point posted a net loss of $54.2 million for the quarter ending March 31, versus a net gain of $52.8 million for the first quarter of 2019. A majority ($30 million) of the loss is attributable to the company’s Great Park Venture in Irvine, where revenues from land sales fell from $127.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 to just $0.7 million in the first quarter of 2020.
The company has previously stated that it is well positioned to weather the COVID-19 storm through the end of the year, if necessary; and that it carries no project debt for any of its master-planned communities. Based in Irvine, Five Point has development projects in Irvine, Valencia and San Francisco.
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3 Comments
Its too bad not to hear the other side in your article. The groups that settled also got 15 million dollars and promised never to comment again on any of Newhall’s westiside projects. SCOPE and the Friends of the Santa CLara River would not make that promise no matter how much money they were offered. Their members live in this coomunity. They all know what impact this project will have on our water supply, air pollution and traffic. They wanted to continue to stand up for residents and the Santa CLara River.
After the terrible drought, SCOPE and the Friends asked for a new water supply analysis/assessment. Remember a few years ag when everything died for lack of water? How will we add another 60,000 units and still have water for existing residents? And now around 40% of our wells are closed due to PFAS and perchlorate pollution, but the water agency is pay 23 million to put in pipes for Newhall Land while they must borrow money for well head treatment In spite of this, the court ruled that the groups had not used the right wording in asking for a new analysis. Well, at least they tried. And I for one applaud them for trying.
Last – Mission Village is built on a closed oil filed. Landmark Village is right across the highway from one of the biggest landfills in the US (Chiquita). No wonder Newhall is losing money.
I am re-posting this comment because it did not get posted to your site Its too bad not to hear the other side in your article. The groups that settled also got 15 million dollars and promised never to comment again on any of Newhall’s westside projects. SCOPE and the Friends of the Santa CLara River would not make that promise no matter how much money they were offered. Their members live in this coomunity. They all know what impact this project will have on our water supply, air pollution and traffic. They wanted to continue to stand up for residents and the Santa CLara River.
After the terrible drought, SCOPE and the Friends asked for a new water supply analysis/assessment. Remember a few years ag when everything died for lack of water? How will we add another 60,000 units and still have water for existing residents? And now around 40% of our wells are closed due to PFAS and perchlorate pollution, but the water agency is pay 23 million to put in pipes for Newhall Land while they must borrow money for well head treatment In spite of this, the court ruled that the groups had not used the right wording in asking for a new analysis. Well, at least they tried. And I for one applaud them for trying.
Last – Mission Village is built on a closed oil filed. Landmark Village is right across the highway from one of the biggest landfills in the US (Chiquita). No wonder Newhall is losing money.I am re-posting this comment because you said it is already posted but there is nothing there on your site.
i too, applaud scope & friends of the river. but then, greed & money usually wins the race. why do you think the wells are contaminated?? because a lot of ignorant people allowed scv to pump scv’s sewage into our underground once pure water, some of which is under valencia golf course, that was purchased many years ago by water co. now to be polluted.