CITY CRAFTS MINE PLAN ANNEXATION IS NEXT STEP.

Byline: Judy O'Rourke Special to the Daily News

SANTA CLARITA - The city's purchase of land proposed as a huge sand and gravel mine and its new attempt to annex the site is part of a multipronged strategy to kill the project.

City officials acknowledge annexation would provide no immediate benefit, but it could play a role as the battle continues over Mexico-based Cemex's plan to mine 56.1 million tons of aggregate from the Soledad Canyon mine.

``As we look at it right now, we don't see any specific strategic advantage in having it in city limits,'' said Michael Murphy, the city's intergovernmental relations officer. ``We don't have the ability within the incorporated area to snap our fingers and say 'No mining.' That is not to say something in the future wouldn't present itself, that having it in the boundaries could give us a leg up.''

The federal Bureau of Land Management owns the mineral rights to the acreage and has granted leases to Cemex to extract the sand and gravel used to manufacture cement. If the annexation plan goes through, Cemex would need local permits to operate the mine.

The mine is on hold while lawsuits wend their way through the courts.

An appeal is pending in Cemex's suit against the county, and the city's own lawsuit against the county is on hold pending an appeal in that case. The city has sued federal agencies, claiming they approved Cemex's lease without proper environmental review.

Under U.S. law, the federal government has the right to mine the land or lease the mining rights.

Attorneys representing the city will argue Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court that federal agencies have shirked their obligation to protect endangered species on the mine property. The city has filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

BLM spokeswoman Jan Bedrosian refused comment other than to say, ``When the U.S. Department of Justice is defending us, the agency has no comment other than what is presented in court.''

In the meantime, U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, has been working with Cemex to find another sand and gravel quarry in Southern California and abandon the Santa Clarita site.

Then on Wednesday, Santa Clarita took steps to annex 1,885 acres in Soledad Canyon, including 1,000 acres the city owns. The valuable sand and gravel lie beneath the surface of the city's property.

If the city succeeds in annexing the property, and prevails in federal lawsuits that claim environmental studies were done improperly - and the studies must be done again - Santa Clarita could be in a position to issue the mining permit, not the county.

The Board of Supervisors approved the mine 3-2 after the county Regional Planning Commission rejected the plan.

``If we had been the land-use approval authority instead of the county of Los Angeles, the outcome, in terms of approving the environmental documents, would have been different,'' Murphy said.

As part of the annexation, the land must be prezoned. The planning commission will consider that matter Oct. 4 and determine whether to change its general plan, allowed under state law just four times a year. Oct. 25 is the final day this year a change can be made, city planner Kai Luoma said.

The city will need to file an application to annex with the Local Agency Formation Commission, which rules on boundary changes in the county. City staff members informally shared the plan with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's staff Wednesday, showing them a map of the area. The supervisor is on record opposing the mining plan.

``It is the first we've seen of the map and we have not had time to analyze it,'' Paul Novak, the supervisor's planning deputy, said Thursday. `We're kind of reserving judgment.''

Novak said Antonovich wants to gauge the opinions of the adjoining property owners whose land is included in the city's proposed annexation.

Judy O'Rourke, [phone]

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com