DEVELOPER TO BUY WATER FOR SPEED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Newhall Land announced Wednesday that it has agreed to purchase additional water for its massive Newhall Ranch development to end the delays that have plagued the project.

The 21,600-home minicity planned west of Santa Clarita has been kept in limbo for more than a year by concerns that there is not enough water available to serve The Newhall Land and Farming Company project.

``We hope the agreement will help streamline the process,'' said company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer.

Newhall Ranch will no longer rely on the 41,000-acre feet of water that the Castaic Lake Water Agency purchased from Kern County. Superior Court Judge David Yaffe ruled that the environmental study of the water transfer was insufficient and ordered the agency to complete a new environmental document.

Newhall Ranch is expected to bring 70,000 new residents to the Santa Clarita Valley, and they are expected to use 17,600 acre-feet of water per year.

Under the agreement, which has yet to be finalized, Newhall Land will buy about 1,600 acre-feet of water from Kern County for the project, Lauffer said.

However, the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, an environmental watchdog group, has long argued in its legal challenges of developments in the Santa Clarita Valley that the homes now under construction far outstrip the valley's water supply.

Additional water purchases will do nothing to avert the looming crisis because of a lack of storage facilities, according to Lynne Plambeck, SCOPE's first vice president.

While some of the project's water issues may have been cleared up, other obstacles remain, company officials acknowledged.

The development could also be delayed by last month's discovery of the Los Angeles sunflower on the project site. The flower, thought to be extinct, had not been seen for 65 years.

The state Department of Fish and Game is also investigating whether Newhall Land destroyed habitat of the rare San Fernando Valley spineflower on the project site. Lauffer has said the company acted within the law.

In addition, Newhall Land pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor charge of illegally altering a stream bed on the Newhall Ranch site. Trial is set for Nov. 20.

In June 2000, Kern County Superior Court Judge Roger D. Randall overturned the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' earlier approval of the project and ordered county officials to reconsider the project's impacts on traffic, animal and plant life and its consistency with the county's General Plan and the adequacy of water resources.

Hearings regarding the project are scheduled to start on Jan. 28, and construction is now tentatively scheduled to start in 2005, after the Kern County Superior Court reviews the changes to the project.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1) Homes in Newhall Land's Westridge project in Valencia are selling strong. The developer is hoping to build a 21,600-home minicity at Newhall Ranch.

(2 -- 3) A worker is busy at Newhall Land's Westridge development, above, while at left a sign stands near some of the homes in the project. Newhall Land has offered by buy additional water for another project at Newhall Ranch in an effort to gain approval. ``We hope the agreement will help streamline the process,'' said company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer