This is a press release from Center for Biological Diversity, one of the losing appellants.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave the green light Tuesday to a sprawling housing development set to ruin 1,000 acres of critically important habitat for imperiled animals in a wildfire-prone area of Santa Clarita Valley.
By denying the Center for Biological Diversity’s administrative appeal, the county opened the door to litigation to challenge the “Northlake” development that will bring 10,000 new residents to an isolated area far from existing communities and jobs.
“The supervisors ignored their responsibility to protect communities and wildlife and support smart planning in Los Angeles County,” said Ross Middlemiss, a legal fellow at the Center. “Bulldozing creeks, evicting animals and creating more traffic congestion just aren’t the answer to California’s housing challenges.”
The Northlake development would fill in more than three miles of Grasshopper Creek, destroying crucial riparian habitat for imperiled species including burrowing owls, western spadefoot toads, southwestern willow flycatchers and least Bell’s vireos. Adjacent to the Castaic Lake Recreation Area, the development includes 3,000 new homes but provides few employment opportunities, meaning it will cause long commutes and worsen air pollution.
The encroachment on the county’s limited open space also threatens corridors for bears, mountain lions and other wildlife between the Angeles and Los Padres national forests.
“The county rubber-stamped this destructive project, refusing to genuinely consider a less harmful alternative,” Middlemiss said. “L.A. County has no business allowing new communities in isolated, undeveloped open space that would expose new residents to a high risk of wildfire.”
The Center has raised concerns and submitted comments throughout the Northlake environmental-review process. The administrative hearing Tuesday was a result of appeal filed by the Center challenging an April 2018 Planning Commission decision approving the development.
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy also filed an administrative appeal against the development.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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15 Comments
I guess someone got their money ?
Scv is doomed. The 5 parking lot.
The 5 Freeway is going to be totally jammed. The Supervisors must have figured out a way to manufacture water. The development going on in an area with such limited infrastructure is obscene. We should be given info on special-interest donations to supervisors and any other politicians involved in the approval process, as well as who lobbied for the development and what that involved. Try looking on the internet to find campaign donations that Supervisor Kathryn Barger receives. The info isn’t there. It should be on the net as well as published in conjunction with any developments of other projects up for approval.
Well Said. I guess they didn’t take into account earthquakes, fire,pollution, water and most of all how the residents are going to endure this mess. Shame on you for not thinking of us.
very sad….i thought people are complaining how calif is so expensive yet they keep building …of course money money won on this one…why do we have people in office that don’t give a damn ….let the average person vote
The County Board of Supervisors (which oversees the development where it’s occurring in our valley, outside of our city) is like Congress and the state Legislature. In Congress there are 100 Senators and 435 House members who make the decisions, and we get to vote for only 2 senators and 1 House member; in the Legislature there are 40 Senators and 80 Assembly members who made the decisions, and we get to vote for only 1 each. On the L.A. County Board of Supervisors there are 5 Supervisors who make the decisions (about Northlake, Newhall Ranch, etc.), and we get to vote for only 1.
what idiots but not surprising . Its all about greed
Great that the Center is concerned about this project. Too bad they took 16 million to stop being concerned about the 21,000 unit Newhall Ranch along the Santa CLara River and all its endangered species there, not to mention the floodplain and the river itself. Let’s see if the Northlake developer can match that amount of money and shut them up on Northlake too.
Great that the Center is concerned about this project. Too bad they took 16 million to stop being concerned about the 21,000 unit Newhall Ranch along the Santa Clara River and all its endangered species there, not to mention the floodplain and the river itself. After the with drew the Fish and Wildlife decided not to list the endangered spineflower.
Let’s see if the Northlake developer can match that amount of money and shut them up on Northlake too. At least there is another group involved.
Is SCV News a mouthpiece for the Center for Biological Diversity? They have an axe to grind and a headline with “Ruin” is precious. We have a major homeless problem due, in part, to a shortage of housing. Weigh the good versus the bad and restate the reasoning the County used in granting approval. That’s how Journalism is supposed to work.
heisenberg………yes so many homeless will be buying there…oh wait all those homes will be gifted ….lol…
“We have a major homeless problem due in part to a shortage of housing”? Try cruising around the area sometime; the transients aren’t exactly going to be buying $600,000 homes anytime soon.
How do we get these supervisors to stop allowing this building madness!!!??? Is there anything we can do?? The implications are obvious. For one, it’s a good thing we have a lot of public/protected land but these developers find any hole and want to stack all this housing.
We’ve been asking that question almost since the first Valencia homes opened in 1967. So, to answer your second question, no.
this town blows