BOARD NOT READY TO ISSUE DECISION ON NEWHALL PLAN : VENTURA COUNTY SEEKS DELAY.Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer Faced with documents in a stack the size of a small child, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. has demanded more time to review reports on the proposed Newhall Ranch community of 25,000 homes planned for the county border. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five member governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district, the current members as of April 2006 are:
Ventura County officials, who have concerns about groundwater contamination, air pollution and traffic from the massive project, said the three months they were given to evaluate environmental studies was not enough. They were optimistic Thursday their request for additional time would be granted. ``It's a very strong recommendation to their planning commission Noun 1. planning commission - a commission delegated to propose plans for future activities and developments commission, committee - a special group delegated to consider some matter; "a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours" - Milton Berle ,'' said Frank Schillo, Ventura County board chairman. ``That's a very favorable event.'' Valencia developer Newhall Land and Farming Co. plans to build the community on 12,000 acres west of the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. and south of state Highway 126 to the Ventura-Los Angeles county border. Ventura County officials fear the development will increase traffic, pollute the air and contaminate con·tam·i·nate v. 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. con·tam·i·nant n. the Santa Clara River Santa Clara River may refer to:
``There's a whole raft of issues including air quality and groundwater pollution,'' Schillo said. ``When you build a subdivision, or a whole city, you have a lot of water runoff going down sewers and into the river or into the ground.'' In an Oct. 8 letter to the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County board, Ventura County officials asked that the review deadline be extended from Dec. 5 to Feb. 5. At the request of Santa Clarita city officials and environmentalists, the public review period has been extended from 90 days to 120 days - nearly three times longer than required by state law. Newhall Land officials said Ventura County officials have had enough time to review the project. ``We don't think they need any more time. They've had the environmental impact report since Aug. 7,'' said company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer. Data might change during the extension, making the environmental impact report inaccurate. But Schillo said Ventura County got a late start on reviewing the environmental impact report, which weighs nearly 50 pounds. Earlier this month, the board hired a full-time planner to monitor the project and allocated $37,000 to county attorneys for an ongoing review of the plan. ``We're only asking for 60 days,'' Schillo said. ``We're still in the process of evaluating the impact of that development on our county.'' Santa Clarita's critics of the project applauded Ventura County's request for more time. ``I think it's wonderful,'' said Lynne Plambeck, a member of the Friends of the Santa Clara River. ``A project of this magnitude certainly deserves additional time.'' ``It's 8,000 pages long, it weighs 50 pounds and if you were to take five minutes per page, it would take one person spending 40 hours a week at it 16-1/2 weeks just to read the document,'' said Allan Cameron, co-founder of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, which opposes the project. The planning commission hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the multipurpose mul·ti·pur·pose adj. Designed or used for several purposes: a multipurpose room; multipurpose software. multipurpose Adjective room at Valencia High School Valencia High School may refer to:
end CAPTION(S): Map Map: NEWHALL RANCH (SAC edition only) |
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