County, Cities Join to Fight Newhall Ranch

Ventura County and the cities of Fillmore and Santa Paula are banding together to present a united front opposing the construction of a new community at the Los Angeles side of the county border near Piru.

With the Los Angeles County Planning Commission set to approve construction of the massive Newhall Ranch project on Dec. 17, Ventura County and the two Santa Clara River Valley cities maintain that the scenic valley’s agricultural heritage and quality of life will be threatened.

They say the project’s 24,000 homes and 19,000 jobs will bring traffic congestion, air pollution and drinking-water contamination to the Santa Clara River Valley. The project, they say, would simultaneously increase demand for low- and moderate-income housing in Ventura County and harm the agricultural industry by increasing chloride levels in the Santa Clara River due to upstream waste-water treatment.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long said she sensed that Newhall Ranch and Los Angeles County officials believed it was only Ventura County raising concerns over the project, not Fillmore and Santa Paula. The cities agreed with her that such a perception needed to be changed, she said.

“What this does--that hasn’t been said before--is that there is a united voice in the Santa Clara Valley that these issues we’ve raised are significant, you have not addressed them and there are serious impacts on Ventura County,” Long said.

The three local governments, in turn, are now signing a resolution asking the Los Angeles County Planning Commission to delay certification of the project’s environmental impact report until the document requires developers to remedy the environmental consequences cited by Ventura County and the two cities.

County supervisors are expected to approve the resolution Tuesday. The cities of Fillmore and Santa Paula also will consider signing the resolution over the next two weeks.