[Newhall Land] – Newhall Land announced Tuesday that the U.S. Federal District Court granted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ and Newhall Land’s summary judgment motions affirming the Corps’ eight-year permitting effort.
In the process, the federal court also denied the plaintiff environmental groups’ counter-motion. U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez issued a 39-page decision upholding the Corps’ issuance of the Clean Water Act section 404 permit, allowing construction of infrastructure needed to facilitate development of the Newhall Ranch planned community — a community previously approved by the County of Los Angeles, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and numerous other federal, state, regional, and local agencies.
Plaintiffs, Center for Biological Diversity, Wishtoyo Foundation, Friends of the Santa Clara River, SCOPE, and Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians challenged the Corps’ permit on the grounds that it violated the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
In its 39-page decision, the Federal Court rejected each argument presented by plaintiffs, finding that the Corps acted appropriately, based its decision on voluminous evidence, and thoroughly explained the basis for its final decision.
“The Federal Court’s decision fully supports the Corps’ permitting effort and validates the Corps’ lengthy permitting and environmental review process for Newhall Ranch,” said Marlee Lauffer, Newhall Land spokeswoman. “We had great confidence in the diligence the Corps used to review and ultimately approve the Newhall Ranch environmental impact statement (EIS), the 404 permit, and its record of decision.”
“As an owner of a company that is building master planned communities in California, we value our working relationship with the Army Corps,” said Emile Haddad, President and CEO of Five Point Communities, the development manager for Newhall Land. “Today, the exhaustive review by the Corps was affirmed by the Federal Court to have been completed diligently, properly, and in accordance with all applicable federal laws. We are thankful for their efforts and look forward to implementing the plans approved by the Corps. We also appreciate the hard work of the Federal Court in carefully reviewing the voluminous record.”
The Corps’ approval will facilitate infrastructure and development of the Newhall Ranch planned community, as well as Newhall Land’s Entrada South planned community and its Valencia Commerce Center. It will also facilitate significant public benefits — including funded and managed open space, jobs, public services, and other amenities. The Corps’ approval is part of the Newhall Ranch Specific Plan, which the County of Los Angeles approved after a 15-year local environmental review process. At build out, Newhall Ranch villages will bring more than 80,000 permanent jobs to the region and over 47,000 development-related jobs. The Specific Plan also calls for over 10,000 acres of open space, 60 miles of trails, several schools and community infrastructure, including a water reclamation plant, fire stations, library and sheriff station.
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71 Comments
Miguel Ramirez
Thumbs down!
FYI this development will be across the 126 from Chiquita Canyon Dump. Is Newhall land and the owner of the landfill going to disclose that? I doubt it. Now consider we are in a record drought. This whole development and dump expansion is not logical.
Developers & Realtors never disclose much of anything. If they did, nobody would buy anything here. It’s like asking, did the developer of Tesoro del Valle disclose the fact that it was a hog farm? (BTW hog farms were the 1940s-50s-60s versions of landfills. Hogs were fattened on food waste. Many ex-hog farms in the SCV are now housing tracts.)
Oh my goodness! What other developments are former hog farms? This is getting interesting!
Plum Canyon, for instance. Several others.
Two thumbs down
More traffic
Real smart since we are on water restriction and don’t get me started on hospitals. Yea fantastic idea. MORONS!!!!!
Well, what needs to be done is create another way to leave this valley besides the 5 fwy!
Yay! More traffic and congestion.
Andrew Villegas
The houses on the west side of that development sure will have a nice view of the dump! Also, I bet all the houses that will back the 126 will appreciate tje 100s of Simi trucks full of trash driving by their houses every day.
Boo
Wtf booooooo
Homes without indoor plumbing, right? Outhouse, right? Not to mention tear down the newly “fixed” I-5 and replace it with a double decker freeway, I’m sure with a toll….insanity!
I’m confused. Is there a drought? If so, how will water use be lessened by increasing development?
Payed off boo on this
Oh and I’m watering my house for now on
Magic mnt will be shut down in no time
Where are we going to get the water for these homes when we don’t have water for are own homes.???
The money wins again over common sense…. I hope the money pees clean water…..
Arizona & Nevada. ..lookin better n better. .each day!
1st……”Money, money, money, money…. money!”
2nd…….H2O?
3rd……. Who cares! Money in the bank. Your problem…
NLF wins again, who the phuque are they buying?
WTF. What a bunch of idiots.
Common sense isn’t so Common!
I pray for the stupid!
Should be interesting to see what comes out of California tap when they turn the faucet.
Don’t forget the millions of gallons of water making the ground ready to build on.
One word #disgusting
Big money hustle’n.
Wtf? And another 10,000 homes in Chatsworth! Where’s the water coming from??? This is just too weird. And the Chatsworth builders, planted grass on the entire street leading to the homes, and are watering everyday. Water running down the street! Wtf?
I can’t stand NL&F they are ruining the scv!
Awesome Town
There goes the neighborhood…
That’s why I use as much water as I want.
That’s why I use as much water as I want.
Love the growth in this valley
Love the growth in this valley
This project is a huge negative for the quality of life in the SCV and is just plain wrong when looked at from almost any practical angle (including our emergency water situation). Google the history and effects of this project and you’ll get sick. One can only wonder if Judge Gutierrez and all the other government agencies cited in the article ruled the way they did because they had their hands tied with legal technicalities. If not, and they actually weighed the pluses and minuses of this project, they are – lightly put – total bozos. Or perhaps some money was changing hands in the back room. I have my water consumption down to 36% of what I used last year and, every time I hear about more new development, I feel like an idiot for doing so.
Read my comment about Judge Gutierrez below. Then do some internet searching on his reputation.
Just wait til the next drought. This is nothing compared to the next one. They happen every 7-10 years. We are being governed by IDIOTS.
Yup.
Newhall Land’s owners have been trying to steal Newhall, Canyon Country, Saugus, Castaic and Valencia residents’ drinking water for this 20,000 home “Newhall Ranch” project since the 1990’s, and they are getting away with it gallon by gallon, by buying off every politician on the Board of Supervisors and City Council (except TimBen Boydston.)
Did you ever read about how much money Newhall Land avoided paying on its debt to the City of Santa Clarita by filing bankruptcy? Of course not…but they are still being royally treated by their elected stooges.
Did you know that the City of Santa Clarita GAVE Newhall Ranch Sanitation District (which has no customers yet) $600,000 of the City of Santa Clarita’s money to contribute to building of a sewer plant for Newhall Ranch? Of course not.
Not a good idea!
Judge Gutierrez should be required to move to Santa Clarita, adjacent to the I-5, and personally experience the lack of sufficient water, the drying out of our lawns, and the crowded freeway traffic, among other things. Perhaps a first hand experience would open his eyes to truth, fairness, and justice for all! He apparently has no conception of the daily difficulties his decision will cause for all the people now living in the area, as well as those who will move into the 21,000 homes he has given an o.k. to.
Sad Commentary on “justice”.
See my comment on Judge Gutierrez below. He’s an example of what’s wrong with Senators and Presidents picking Federal judges based on ethnicity rather than intellect.
I no longer live in SCV but my family is still there. I can’t think of anything more egregious than building more housing in the valley. You are already on restricted water usage, traffic is ridiculous and crime is increasing. SCV doesn’t need more housing. It needs a way to block further development. There are apartments and condos under all the freeways now, the hills are scraped off to build houses, housing prices are still excessive and being built with postage stamp lots, looking into their neighbors windows…or stories in the air which will come down in the next 6+ earthquake. There are more things in life worth more than the profit of corporations. Clean air, enough water, space to enjoy nature and not encroach upon the life that already lives there. We may have mosquitos in WI, but we also have untouched nature, houses with yards and neighbors we like because we don’t live on top of them. I lived in CA for 26 yrs and the reason I left was the kind of growth SCV exemplifies.
I can’t think of anything more egregious than building more housing in the valley. You are already on restricted water usage, traffic is ridiculous and crime is increasing. SCV doesn’t need more housing. It needs a way to block further development. There are apartments and condos under all the freeways now, the hills are scraped off to build houses, housing prices are still excessive and being built with postage stamp lots, looking into their neighbors windows…or stories in the air which will come down in the next 6+ earthquake. There are more things in life worth more than the profit of corporations. Clean air, enough water, space to enjoy nature and not encroach upon the life that already lives there. We may have mosquitos in WI, but we also have untouched nature, houses with yards and neighbors we like because we don’t live on top of them. I lived in CA for 26 yrs and the reason I left was the kind of growth SCV exemplifies.
So there you have it. Doesn’t matter that there is no water, according to the Court. Or that residents have to breath bad air and let their lawns die. Everything for the developer. But what was really absurd was that the Corp attorney purposely obscured information by stating that all the Courts had approved the project and neglecting to mention that the state River Alteration permit is now before the California Supreme Court where there is hope that some additional review will be required, especially in light of the current massive drought.
But it would probably not have mattered anyway. This Judge is not known for his concern for the community or the environment and doesn’t usually rule for the plaintiffs, so the environmental groups did not exprect to win this round. They hope that the 9th circuit court of appeal will stand up for our valley and our residents.I hope so too.
Seriously, down the road maybe this should go forward but now NO. Water first, infrastructure second and hello ROADS anyone???? This valley and freeways have a hard time now can you imagine when this is built. I know this will be in stages but no one is addressing the emergency issues here.
Sooo happy I moved away… :)
Lucky duck! I’m on your coat tail and getting out of so cal!
Lucky duck! I’m on your coat tail and getting out of so cal!
I moved to Oregon in 2011…best decision I’ve ever made ! :)
Meh!
Meh!
WATER?????
Greed.
Lisa mentions roads and traffic. 20,000 houses will probably bring in about 40,000 cars to a small, already congested area. There is an overpass being built at 126 and Commerce Center Drive that should relieve some congestion. I would assume this overpass was a condition of allowing Newhall Land to build their 20,000 homes. Did Newhall Land pay anything toward the construction of this multi-million dollar overpass? Or was it just the rest of us schmucks who are footing the bill for it?
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/cadot2005commercecenterinterchange.htm
Dan OConnell…NLF gave them dirt from Val Verde and the west side of the dump towards the interchange…..we really hate the new scenery along Chiquito Canyon Road coming into Val Verde. Now the dump smell is worse since there are no hills to hold it back.
Adding just as many homes inside the SCV. It’s all about money. Those blaming NL&F have to realize that it hasn’t been NL&F for over 10 years. They were bought out and get their marching orders from Lennar in FL.
Actually Brian, it’s not even Lennar making decisions any more. A company co-owned by Lennar and a civil engineer from Orange County named Emile Haddad, called “Five Points”, manage the hierarchy of limited partnerships and limited liability companies which are the ultimate owners of Newhall Land. At the end of the Newhall Land bankruptcy, the actual identity of the company’s buyers had to be revealed to the California Public Utilities Commission in order to transfer the PUC license for Valencia Water Company. The disclosure showed that Newhall Land was then effectively owned by about 5 nationally known investment funds, or “hedge funds” as laymen call them. Mr. Haddad also issued a press release at that time bragging about the big hedge funds faith in his and Lennar’s management.
However, over the course of the ensuing years after Newhall Land’s bankruptcy there has been a complete turn over in the identity of lawyers for Newhall Land, and there are other signs that it is not “Five Points” making the critical decisions anymore, but instead the investment fund owners “asset managers”, who Greg McWilliams has complained are making his work unpleasant.
So Santa Claritans should understand that colloquially “Wall Streeters” are the anonymous entities who actually own and make the major decisions for. Newhall Land, and that people like McWilliams, Laufer and other ‘executives’ in the Santa Clarita office of Newhall Land are not the ones with the power anymore.
Derek, when you see someone’s face next to his/her comment here, the person’s comment is being imported from our Facebook page (facebook.com/scvtv). The person you’re trying to talk to will never see your comment unless you post it in the appropriate place on our Facebook page.
Yes and no. Today, Lennar is a minority owner. NLF is controlled by venture capitalists / fund managers / investment bankers.
SCVnews, thanks for the link to the environmental assessment report for the 126/Commerce Center Drive interchange. This report is a few hundred pages and I’ve only had a chance to scan thru it and look at the table of contents. It discusses the environmental impact of just the interchange, and I don’t see anything regarding the cost of the interchange or where the construction funds are coming from. It does give some traffic-count figures but the figures are difficult to analyze without more time to study the report. Also, the report is dated 2005 and a lot has changed around here since then. And, while I only gave it a quick study, it appears the report totally misses the environmental situation that Susie Evans discusses above.
Just showing you that it’s a Newhall Land project; a condition of Newhall Ranch. It’s the current document – no more outdated than the Newhall Ranch EIR, which was drafted a little over 15 years ago and approved around 2003. That’s the story with EIRs – after they’re approved, they’re tied up in litigation for 10 or 15 years. It’s the same case with all of the major development that’s just now coming online. The things that are being built today, or are about to be built, were actually approved quite long ago.
Absolutely ridiculous. Who’s paying off who.
If you read “Robing Room” or any of the other rating sites for Federal judges, you get to see that U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez has one of the worst reputations on the Federal bench in the Los Angeles area. Unlike state court, once a case has been assigned to a Federal judge, there is no way for a party to get him off the case.
So it’s on to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, as the plaintiffs expected once they saw Judge Gutierrez was assigned to the case.