Newhall Ranch Project

[KHTS] – The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday to reject Newhall Land’s environmental impact report for the Newhall Ranch project, taking the project “back to the drawing board.”

The California Supreme Court found that the project did not have substantial evidence regarding greenhouse gas emissions; did not adequately protect the endangered unarmored threespine stickleback; and the plaintiffs, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, used up all of their resources by holding an optional comment period.

Justice Ming Chin, objected the ruling, saying the EIR could be “easily fixed” and the harm is in delay.

“The current EIR was finalized some five years ago,” said Chin. “By the time this litigation ends, and the new EIR is prepared and finalized, we will be much closer to 2020 than when the current EIR was finalized in 2010.”

Chin also said that delaying the project could offer rewards for opponents of the project.

“Delay the project long enough and it has to meet new targets, and then perhaps new targets after that,” said Chin. “All this is a recipe for paralysis.”

Justice Carol Corrigan agreed with a majority of the ruling, specifically the issues regarding the unarmored threespine stickleback and the methodology used to assess the significance of greenhouse gas emissions.

Unarmored threespine stickleback

However, Corrigan did not believe that the Newhall Ranch project should have to provide comprehensive information regarding the greenhouse gas emissions.

“Because the level of detail the majority demands from this EIR is contrary to both our deferential standard of review and our approval of the methodology used to assess greenhouse gas significance, I respectfully dissent from that portion of its opinion,” said Corrigan.

Newhall Ranch is a 19-square-mile project proposed by Newhall Land and would include approximately 20,000 homes west of Interstate 5.

The completed project would bring about 60,000 new residents to the site, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Statement from Center for Biological Diversity et al.

SAN FRANCISCO— The California Supreme Court today struck a severe blow to the Newhall Ranch mega-development project near Los Angeles, upholding environmental claims brought against state wildlife officials by the Center for Biological Diversity, Wishtoyo Foundation/Ventura Coastkeeper, Friends of the Santa Clara River, SCOPE and the California Native Plant Society, and fully reversing a 2014 ruling by the Second Appellate District, Division Five.

“This is a tremendous victory for the climate and California’s protected wildlife,” said John Buse, senior counsel and legal director at the Center. “This decision means public officials have to show their work in determining whether massive new development projects will interfere with the state’s climate goals. The court also gave one of California’s rarest fish, and all other fully protected wildlife, a reprieve from eviction in the face of ever-encroaching sprawl.”

Newhall Ranch would create a new town of more than 60,000 residents on a 12,000-acre site in northern Los Angeles County that includes a nearly six-mile stretch of the Santa Clara River. The Santa Clara is the last major free-flowing river in Southern California, and is home to many rare species, including the unarmored threespine stickleback and southern steelhead. The development also would create new greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to roughly 260,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The state Supreme Court’s decision today resolves a 2011 suit challenging the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s approvals of permits for the entire development and review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The court’s decision addresses three distinct issues.

First, the court concluded it was reasonable for Fish and Wildlife to evaluate the project’s greenhouse gas emissions in light of statewide climate goals. But the court also held that the department’s conclusion — that the project’s emissions were insignificant because they reduced “business as usual” emissions by roughly the amount identified as necessary in the “scoping plan” for A.B. 32, California’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law — was not adequately supported by the evidence. The court noted that the scoping plan’s statewide goals could not simply be applied to individual new projects like Newhall Ranch, particularly because it may be far easier to reduce emissions from new developments than from existing buildings.

“The Supreme Court got the big picture on climate and sprawl development exactly right,” said Center senior attorney Kevin Bundy. “To make good decisions, we need to know exactly how individual projects fit into California’s overall climate effort. Just taking a statewide analysis out of context and applying it to individual projects doesn’t produce useful results and doesn’t protect our climate.”

On the second issue, the court also agreed with environmental challengers that Fish and Wildlife improperly allowed the capture and relocation of unarmored threespine stickleback, a fish classified as “fully protected” under state law, to facilitate the development.

“Thanks to the court’s ruling, California’s fully protected wildlife species are truly fully protected,” said Buse. “The highest level of protection is required, not just for the unarmored threespine stickleback, but for California condors, peregrine falcons and sea otters. Fully protected wildlife species can no longer be evicted from their native habitat to accommodate new subdivisions.”

Finally, on the third issue, the court rejected the department’s attempt to discount comments raised by the public, including the Wishtoyo Foundation and Chumash Ceremonial Elder Mati Waiya, regarding the project’s effects on Native American cultural resources and steelhead.

“We applaud the California Supreme Court for maintaining the right of California tribes to identify and prevent impacts to tribal cultural resources in CEQA’s environmental review process,” said Mati Waiya, Wishtoyo executive director.

“This is a very good day for our current and future generations,” said Jason Weiner, general counsel for Wishtoyo and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program. “The court fulfilled its role by upholding California’s statutes needed to curb global warming, prevent species extinction, and to allow for meaningful public and tribal participation during state environmental review processes.”

The other environmental challengers also praised the decision:

“Friends of the Santa Clara River thanks the California Supreme Court for agreeing to consider this important case, and appreciates the effort that each member of the court put forth in making its decision,” said Ron Bottorff, Friends’ chair. “We see this decision as affirming that the California Environmental Quality Act has once again served to provide the proper framework for deciding critical issues in protecting our environment.”

Lynne Plambeck, president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, said that today’s decision creates an opportunity to reconsider unsustainable mega-projects. “In a time of severe drought throughout California due to climate change, it is appropriate that the court will now require a closer look at how we can address this problem through the land use approval process. Californians have answered the call to help by making huge changes in their lives. The development industry must now look for solutions too.”

“The California Native Plant Society greatly appreciates the wisdom and thoughtfulness the California Supreme Court justices used in deciding the complex issues of this case,” said David Magney of the California Native Plant Society. “The court has saved CEQA as we know it and protected our environment.”

The plaintiffs were represented by John Buse, Aruna Prabhala and Kevin Bundy of the Center for Biological Diversity; Adam Keats; Jason Weiner of the Wishtoyo Foundation and Ventura Coastkeeper; Jan Chatten-Brown and Doug Carstens of the firm of Chatten-Brown and Carstens; and Sean Hecht of the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 900,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Wishtoyo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots organization with over 700 members consisting of Ventura County’s diverse residents and Chumash Native Americans. Wishtoyo’s mission is to preserve and protect Chumash culture, the culture of all of Ventura County’s diverse communities, and the environment that our current and future generations depend upon.