NEWHALL RANCH SETTLEMENT GROUPS STRIKE ACCORD ON WATER DETAILS, FEES.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Environmental groups leading the opposition against the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch subdivision settled litigation Wednesday against the project's developer after more than a decade of resistance.

The settlement requires The Newhall Land and Farming Company to disclose details about the project's expected water use and also to pay $43,000 toward lawyers' fees for the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Santa Clara River.

Although the settlement is an anticlimax to more than a decade of fighting Newhall Ranch, activists said it will not spell an end to opposition to the giant housing project, which still needs approval for each of its neighborhood tract maps.

``This does not preclude litigation of the tract maps, but it should give us more definite and concrete water supply information on which to base our arguments. We'll be able to make more clear and concise arguments,'' said SCOPE President Lynne Plambeck, also a local water official.

However, an environmentalist involved in the case who asked not to be identified said it was a blow to the groups that had fought for so long against Newhall Ranch.

Newhall Land officials were glad to put the litigation behind them.

``We're very pleased that the settlement occurred. While we were very confident that we were going to prevail in the appellate court, this allows us to put the legal issues behind us and move forward with implementing the specific plan,'' said Newhall spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer.

The settlement caps a decade-long fight over Newhall Ranch. Originally approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1999, the plan was rejected by a Kern County judge due to complaints by environmental groups and Ventura County. The judge ordered it to be reconsidered by Los Angeles County after several changes were made.

Newhall Ranch is expected to break ground in 2006, but each phase of the 12,000-acre, 21,000-home project must be reviewed and approved separately. It is the largest subdivision approved in the history of Los Angeles County. A larger development, Tejon Ranch, is proposed for just inside the county, but has not been reviewed by the county Board of Supervisors.

The massive Newhall Ranch project was reconsidered by the supervisors last summer, and approved on a 4-1 vote. The Kern County judge reviewed the case and found in favor of Newhall Land.

SCOPE appealed that decision, but on Wednesday agreed to settle the dispute.

Local environmentalists said the decision to drop the appeal will not stop them from opposing Newhall Ranch for years to come.

``The battle to save the Santa Clara River is not over by a long shot - they need (Army Corps of Engineers) permits and (Department of Fish and Game) permits and they have to have the project signed off by U.S. Fish and Wildlife,'' said Teresa Savaikie, who has protested the project for years due to its potential impacts on the fragile Santa Clara River ecosystem. Newhall Ranch will sit along the river's banks.

``It's just simply not a done deal,'' she said.

Sierra Club officials expressed the same feeling.

``The fight isn't over and we'll continue to challenge each tract map approval. The Sierra Club continues to be concerned that water supplies contaminated with perchlorate are reported as available for use as drinking water,'' said Sierra Club spokeswoman Johanna Zetterberg.

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com