The Newhall Land and Farming Company has applied
for a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers for the massive Newhall
Ranch project on the Santa Clara River near Santa Clarita. As envisioned
by the developer, Newhall Ranch would be an entirely new city of about
65,000 people on about 12,000 acres. The Army Corps permit application
represents a pivotal opportunity for the public to become involved in order
to reduce or avoid the most devastating effects of Newhall Ranch on the
Santa Clara River and the adjoining natural environment.
The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors originally
approved the Specific Plan for the entire Newhall Ranch project in 1999.
Three environmental groups (the Sierra Club, Friends of the Santa Clara
River, and SCOPE) filed a lawsuit challenging this decision.
The environmental groups were joined by the County of Ventura and other
public agencies. In 2000, a Kern County Court overturned the project's
approval and ordered additional environmental analysis on several issues,
including the impacts of development in the floodplain of the Santa Clara
River. After a voluminous new environmental report was prepared,
in 2003 the court found that the analysis was sufficient, despite the continued
objections of the environmental groups. The environmental groups
have appealed the 2003 decision.
Meanwhile, the developer has pressed ahead to
obtain the next required approval for Newhall Ranch, a "section 404 permit"
from the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the Clean Water Act,
anyone wishing to discharge dredge and fill material in "waters of the
United States" must obtain a section 404 permit. In essence, this
means that a developer who intends to fill wetlands and modify streamcourses
within the Army Corps' jurisdiction is subject to this federal permitting
requirement.
Newhall Land and Farming (now owned by the
Florida-based Lennar Corporation) has applied for a 404 permit for the
wetland and floodplain development associated with the Newhall Ranch Project
on the Santa Clara River and its tributaries. The permit would authorize
extensive work, fill, bank stabilization, and other activities within wetland
and floodplain areas, and may affect several endangered species, including
the least Bell's vireo, unarmored threespine stickleback, and arroyo toad.
Newhall Ranch lies along over five miles of the Santa Clara River between
Highway 5 and the Ventura County Line near Magic Mountain. As approved
by Los Angeles County, Newhall Ranch would require fill of about 141 acres
of the floodplain of the Santa Clara River, construction of extensive bank
stabilization (primarily buried levees - effectively channelizing five
miles of the Santa Clara River's remaining highly-sensitive riparian habitat),
and establishment of three major bridge crossings. In addition, many
miles of tributary streams will be channelized and in some cases culverted.
Overall, the Newhall Ranch site will be converted from a natural river
with unchannelized tributaries, surrounding open space, and some agricultural
use to an intensively-developed urban setting. Thus, the developer
is seeking the 404 permit to perform some of the most environmentally-damaging
work associated with the Newhall Ranch project.
A permit does not merely allow the fill of the Santa Clara River's floodplain, construction of bridges, and channelization of tributaries - it will effectively allow the entire project itself to move forward. Therefore, it is important that the Army Corps also consider Newhall Ranch's broader environmental effects, such as those on air quality, traffic, water supply, and upland habitat.
In response to the application, the Army Corps has issued a public notice and is commencing an environmental review. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the public notice and on the subsequent environmental review, and to persuade the Army Corps to deny the permit or to require project modifications that avoid impacts to resources in the Corps' jurisdiction. This will not be a simple task, since Newhall has already released volumes of environmental reports contending that the massive development will have no adverse effect on the Santa Clara River. However, this process is important because (1) the Army Corps will evaluate the project based on the more stringent standards of the Clean Water Act; (2) Newhall deferred more detailed analysis of many of the project's biological effects to this stage, so a more rigorous analysis must be provided for the Corps permit; and (3) this is probably the last chance to consider the impact of the project as a whole on the environment - future reviews will be limited to individual subdivision phases of the project.
A copy of the Army Corps' Public Notice may be downloaded at:
http://www.spl.usace.army.mil/regulatory/pn/200301264.pdf
Comments may be sent to:
US Army Corps of Engineers,
Los Angeles District
Regulatory Branch - Ventura
Field Office
ATTN: CESPL-CO-2003-01264-AOA
2151 Alessandro Drive, Suite
110
Ventura, CA 93001
or emailed to:
aaron.o.allen@usace.army.mil
Upload and copyright© Feb 2004 by SCOPE