[KHTS] – The California Supreme Court has agreed to review a lower-court ruling that cleared the way for The Newhall Land and Farming Co. to start building its eventual 20,000-home subdivision west of Interstate 5.
The ruling unanimously reversed Judge Ann Jones’ 2012 judgment in favor of the plaintiffs – which include the Center for Biological Diversity and the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment – and allowed the Santa Clara River Alteration Permit for the project to proceed.
“We’re really pleased,” said Lynne Plambeck, president of SCOPE. “You never can predict the ultimate decision from the court, but it is likely that they were concerned about the Appellate Court’s decision or they wouldn’t have decided to hear it.”
The 4,055-home Mission Village community would be the second phase of Newhall Ranch, following the initial 1,342-home Landmark Village development west of Interstate 5.
Three areas of the decision are set to be revisited, including how impacts to endangered species and global warming were determined, officials said.
The ruling cited the plaintiff’s arguments and noted several of them lack merit.
“The appellate court’s reversal of the trial court’s decision is validation of years of hard work on environmental documents and subsequent permits,” Jordan Traverso, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in an earlier interview. “We always work meticulously to ensure documents and permits such as these are sound. We especially do so on a project of this magnitude.”
SCOPE is one of five environmental groups that challenged the permit, which would allow for the construction of 20,000 homes in the Santa Clarita Valley near Highway 126 and the Santa Clara River, in January 2011 due to environmental concern about water supply and species protection.
“We felt that the Appellate Court decision, particularly on greenhouse gases, was just something that was not going to encourage the kind of planning that we need to change where we’re going,” Plambeck said. “We’re hoping that they (the Supreme Court) will establish a legitimate baseline for the project, send it back and require further mitigation.”
Newhall Land officials could not be reached for comment as of Saturday afternoon.
– Melissa Lampert
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Tweet This
Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.
76 Comments
Some of the most beautiful open land in the Santa Clarita Valley. This area should be saved as a park. Of coarse Santa Clarita City Council can’t collect taxes off of natural open space.
Michael it’s not in the city it’s 5 miles west of Santa Clarita look at the map
Castaic residents are affected as are all West Valencia/Stevenson Ranch residents, and Newhall. The 5 freeway is a cluster f- 24/7, and this home development would impact thousands, no hospitals, police, no water, no roads, just more people! Not a good idea.
Can you imagine the traffic on the 5 Frwy? It’s already scary. They don’t need to add more housing to this area, period.
I was thinking the same thing Jackie…I like that the economy is good enough to start building but so many places are being graded for new housing which could potentially make freeways worse.
I agree this land should be kept the walnut is. No more housing in SCV. There is too much traffic here as it is.
Scv doesn’t need any more homes. How bout selling all the empty homes. I love this city but it’s beginning to turn into Orange County. Too many people.
No more homes.
Darryl it would still affect all traffic 5, 14 and local byways.
But Darryl , who’ s mall would they be going to ? That’s right , much more traffic. I have been here 20 yrs and saddened by the traffic throughout our beautiful city . Not sure what the purpose of this would be other than tax money.
Please No more!
Worst idea ever! Schools are already crowded, mall parking is already horrific, traffic on the streets is bad enough, and to add more traffic to the 5??!! No thanks!
I don’t get you guys, progress is right in front of your eyes? the future is now baby !!! Forget the past! The nl&fuc**eads will never go away the Orwellian model set forth in the 80’s is now an adult . Alot of you have never known anything other then this style of city planning (I still have a hard time thinking the scv as a city) but wouldn’t be nice if that “town” was more about the constituents and less about corporations. But then again you guys allowed something like f*** McKeon fleece not just our town but money from the county coffers.
Beyond the traffic nightmare, where is the water coming from for these new homes? And schools, infrastructure, the list goes on.
Remember when lobbyist meant they stood out in the lobby and not actually a councilperson
I live in Castaic and am only about a mile from this site. I have been watching what they have been doing already to get ready for this project, and it just disgusts me. All the land they have graded, the gorgeous trees they have bulldozed, the road construction… It is going to impact us the most here in Castaic and I am just sick of it all. It used to be so beautiful over there, still wild, green and relatively untouched. Thanks a lot, Newhall Land and “Harming”. There is no stopping them.
Comments should be made to the county and Michael A. Office?
That’s B.S., what are we going to do with all the animals, they are having a hard enough time trying survive as it is
Look on the bright side…they will probably open up a couple more Walmarts.
Newhall Land and Farm strikes again! They’ve been talking about it for years. I miss the small town and onion fields or Saturday nights at the raceway, now it’s just another town with loads of people. I will never forget when they tore down Soledad elementary and going into 6th grade having to switch schools. Thanks Newhall Land and Farm for over populating SCV
The infrastructure cannot support existing homes… 20,000 more will help, how…?
Aren’t there any bugs or flowers that new to be preserved in that area?
There’s So Many Problems. .. in our areas… we’re fighting the landfill expansion. .. lol right near the new homes planned… what a mess
There’s blue belly lizards
WHERE is the water coming from?
Not a good idea
Great make more room for more the illegals to come here and live.
Do the world a favor and shut your trap. You have terrible parents that raised you absolutely wrong. Dumb spic.
Last time I checked I was white. Call me a spic. That pretty much sums up who are you idiot. How’s the welfare line. Israel Sosa go back where your from.
Last time I checked I was white. Call me a spic. That pretty much sums up who are you idiot. How’s the welfare line. Israel Sosa go back where your from.
Lol love you Jamie.
Lol love you Jamie.
Dimitri Maxwell
Typical Lennar/Newhall Land…keep building homes, but don’t worry about infrastructure. I guess they’ve all forgotten the Northridge earthquake & the nightmare people faced on a DAILY basis, trying to get out of this valley, just to get to work! This angers me to no end.
Where is all of the water going to come from? These homes will need water, right? So while I’m conserving because of the drought, they are going to build houses on my water conservation. It makes me wonder.
Why cant we have a KOA Camping Grounds where local families can go and camp for a weekend? Some Families cant afford to go far but if we had a local KOA or some kind of Campgrounds near our city then a weeknight camp out seasonal of course would still preserve a portion of natural area, it would have to be well maintained of course.
We do….castaic lake campground
We do….castaic lake campground
I’m really thinking that I want to move out of state all together is getting so bad out here:-(
It’s cool! The next summer wild fire will wipe out all the houses (be funny if it happened after they were built)
Glad they are taking a second look at the future consequences of this project. Water is a problem already. Schools are overcrowded. We have one hospital! They are building more homes along the new golden valley road already. That area should be farmland in 50 ac.parcels or left untouched.
I have been in SCV since 1984. I grew up here when every single family knew one another! It sickens me that it is no longer like that! Why are we building more homes!?!?! SCV is already way too crowded. Very sad!!
I have been in SCV since 1984. I grew up here when every single family knew one another! It sickens me that it is no longer like that! Why are we building more homes!?!?! SCV is already way too crowded. Very sad!!
Does anyone have insight as to what we can do at this point to voice our concerns? Maybe contact SCOPE and see where we, concerned residents, can be of help?
There are two meetings a month at City Hall. If there were to be literally thousands of local residents to show up in protest there would be great results. Sadly, people would rather watch sports and reality shows.
Does anyone have insight as to what we can do at this point to voice our concerns? Maybe contact SCOPE and see where we, concerned residents, can be of help?
Time to move out of SCV. This is just ridiculous!
Time to move out of SCV. This is just ridiculous!
MDR bro!
Stop ruining OUR town!!!! Stupid developers only care about money and just keep destroying what made this town special. Go the hell away!!!
You can’t biuld anymore in the SFV. Nowhere to go but north in L.A. county.
Is there anything we can do about it?
.
Thinking the prejudice comments and the response to the ignorance above represent the reason I’d want to leave more than too many houses.
.
I grew up in SCV, and have seen nothing but building since 1966. The 1980’s-2000’s brought a lot of new homes to the rural parts of the SCV, and the City Center area’s. Newhall Land and Farm has had a plan in place for many decades to over build here! They however do not include the services needed for adequate water, transportation, fire, police, and roadways needed for these developments! The SCV city will become overwhelmed by the traffic, and infrastructure destruction to these natural land masses they are building on! It’s really outrageous that we just sit and allow this huge company to dictate what is happening on open land space. The city moved all of the old historic buildings to Hart Park, and made room for new development, and now look at what we are in for! Our city has over 200,000 people, and only 1 small Hospital! There is only 1 Sheriff’s Department, and a CHP. There are a good amount of Fire Stations, but it would be nice to make sure there are enough if they are to build 20,000 homes. Will Newhall Land and Farming build more schools, and supply buses, trains, or some kind of alternative transportation (I’m thinking they will need to offer helicopter service so people can get to work in the San Fernando Valley or Los Angeles on time, LOL). The 5 Freeway is a freakin mess 24/7 with horrible traffic everyday! Many businesses and buildings are vacant in SCV due to the economy (remember Applebee’s, and now Elephant Bar, the Albertsons markets in CC and WR, etc.). Newhall Land is going to ruin our housing market, and make it harder to sell older homes! The people like myself who’s children are grown won’t be able to sell their homes at retirement for what they are really worth when these home get built. I don’t know maybe it’s just speculation, but the reason we settled here to raise our children was to have a small town feel, with the logistics of being able to work less than 30 minutes away, and have a decent home at a good price, nice public schools, and a low crime, clean community. With 20,000 more homes, and hundreds of thousands of new residents coming in, our town will probably never be the same, and not only will crime rise, but the standard of living will decline. Thanks Newhall Land and Farm for killing the small town my fellow citizens so loved.
Where were all of you when this was proposed nearly 20 years ago? It may be far too late to complain now this is been an ongoing case that needed community input and now nobody’s saying anything so it’s off to court some more.
Where’s the water coming from, and who got paid off to approve such nonsense.
Castaic still hasn’t built a high school and the lower lake looks deserted.
20,000 new homes with no backyard. lol
Congrats Kelli Russ!
We’ve been saying to slow down developments long before most of you whiney people moved here. Now that you’re here you feel entitled to keep it everyone else out who wants to move here behind you. They are coming, you can’t stop it. If we could, most of you wouldn’t even be here to complain about it. The best you can do is encourage developers to improve the infrastructure to support your future new neighbors.
This is an argument about the environmental review (CEQA). The only way to potentially kill a project like this is to attack the environmental doc. That document reviews all of the issues, to include water and biological issues (the two mentioned in the article). I’m looking forward to how the Courts will decide this. It will most likely make an EIR or Neg Dec even tougher to write. If you all don’t want to see continual construction, change the laws- Napa County has a zoning (Agricultural Watershed-AW) that doesn’t allow these sorts of planned development.
Newhall land & farm went bankrupt once already did they not??? So ….
Only the suckers who will pay the Mell-Roos will move there.
Also, I hate Newhall land for taking and selling the Valencia golf course then promising the people here another course (Tpc) but only to build it and make that one private.
No more homes!!!!
No more homes!!!!
This is disturbing. Over the last 26 years I watched a once beautiful mountain town become a leveled increasingly populated city. It’s depressing watching the local mountains like those in canyon country, being tarnished and leveled down to make way for countless thousands of more people to clog the roads. Crime will increase as will traffic, prices, and pollution while decreasing the spectacular scenery, wild life and the wonderful feeling of separation from crummy downtown Los Angeles.
Dimitri Maxwell
Time to move out! We don’t need more traffic and more people. I moved out here in 1970’s and I have seen it change drastically. Good old days gone bye bye.
We will have more F…ed up freeway
Why are they calling it mission village? We don’t have a mission.
So sad. We are destroying all of the beautiful land that we have left.
It is such a beautiful stretch on the 126 but it will eventually be developed. Orange groves, breathtaking rolling hills and trees. Take pictures and hike it now. :)
$$$$$$ All they see is dollar signs. $$$$$$
I’m so sad!
I hope this gets stopped.