KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Newhall Ranch project is set to continue construction after a ruling this week from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an effort from environmental groups to stop the development.
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The Friends of the Santa Clara River and the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) filed a complaint in October 2017, claiming the Army Corps of Engineers did not properly administer the development’s environmental impact report (EIR).
The Ninth Circuit judges reaffirmed a lower court decision Monday stating endangered wildlife would not be threatened by the housing development and the EIR was properly administered.
The Newhall Ranch project, near the Santa Clara River, includes 21,500 units of mixed-use development built along six miles of Highway 126 west of Interstate 5 in Valencia.
The authorization to discharge materials into the Santa Clara River as part of the project was affirmed by Circuit Judges Andrew J. Kleinfeld, Sandra S. Ikuta and Jacqueline H. Nguyen.
The panel further concluded the Corps complied with the ESA, as it determined that the Southern California steelhead trout would not be affected by the project, and therefore the Corps’ decision not to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service was not arbitrary or capricious.
For similar reasons, the panel concluded the Corps reasonably assessed the project’s potential impacts to the steelhead and provided sufficient discussion to satisfy its NEPA obligations.
The Newhall Ranch development was first proposed in the 1980s and was subject to numerous state and federal legal challenges by conservation groups. Monday’s ruling effectively ends all pending litigation and allows the project to move forward.
The challenge to the housing project previously reached the California Supreme Court, after being denied by the lower state courts.
Grading for the project on the Newhall Ranch construction site began late last year. Groundbreaking on the construction of the project’s first two phases is scheduled to take place later this year.
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New families need homes to live in! Let’s get this rolling!
Where’s the water coming from for 21,000 homes? What’s the traffic impact with many more vehicles on the roads?
Anyone know who the General Contractor is?
Gonna bring lots of jobs to the construction industry 🙂
AND increasingly WORSE traffic to Interstate 5 ! We both hope to be retired and out of SCV before this nightmare occurs. The freeway is in very poor condition as is and even though they are ‘working’ on the freeway (wink wink). cars are currently backed up for miles trying to get out of SCV. It often takes me 15-20 minutes to just get from Lyons and over the Newhall pass . So with 27,000 new homes, coming in, you can expect an additional 50,000+ cars to be added to the already stress Interstate 5 freeway system, especially between Castaic and Los Angeles. A freeway ‘system’ that’s been crumbling for years and becomes increasingly less efficient with every ‘improvement’.
That’s also a lot of tax payers, property taxes, car taxes and licensing fees that will be collected. Hmmm…. $$$,$$$,$$$
There are enough new families here and enough traffic and congestion. I for one am tired of seeing mountains mowed down and nothing but homes cluttering our once beautiful vistas. Pretty soon homes will line the 126. We are too crowded!
Net Zero. Should require electric cars and electric bikes with each new home. Open Trails ebikes has the bikes.
The City of Santa Clarita Does not care about the people .They only care about the tax revenue that they will receive. Just look at the crime and traffic. #Toilet town
Well…I have been anticipating this and so I bought in H.Beach and waiting for my son to graduate. Total change of pace. The school system is great compared to LAUSD so I am grateful. Many positive things about Santa Clarita valley but now it’s time to move on. I’ll be out when phase 1 is done so hopefully I will avoid the 5 jams. Thank you Santa Clarita for the wonderful years. Mornings and evenings are wonderful and I’ll miss that.