RULING SUPPORTS CEMEX JUDGE REJECTS CITY'S CLAIMS.Byline: Judy O'Rourke Special to the Daily News SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - The city lost the latest round in its battle against a mega-mine in Soledad Canyon Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon / valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. Soledad Canyon contains the localities of Vincent, Acton, Ravenna, and Agua Dulce. when a federal judge this week rejected claims that federal agencies shirked their duty to perform a proper environmental analysis before giving Cemex the go-ahead to mine the land. On Tuesday afternoon the court sided with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Cemex in a 60-page ruling. ``The city of Santa Clarita has brought a number of challenges against this project to try to block its implementation,'' said Kerry Shapiro, the lead attorney for Cemex's Soledad Canyon project. ``I think this ruling brings us one very significant step closer to achieving implementation of this project.'' In 1990, the federal Bureau of Land Management awarded contracts to the Mexico-based company to mine 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel. Court papers noted, ``Plaintiff's claims are belied by the Administrative Record comprised of 30,000 pages compiled over an approximate 12-year period by two federal agencies which completely supports and justifies'' their conclusions. Attorneys for the city said they had anticipated U.S. District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian's decision. ``Given his past rulings, we are not surprised,'' said Geralyn Skapik, of Burke, Williams and Sorensen LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol . The city will file an appeal. Two other cases lodged by the city are pending in appeals court. The Bureau of Land Management had not seen the ruling Wednesday, but spokeswoman Jan Bedrosian said the agency will review the decision carefully with the Fish and Wildlife Service. On Tuesday night the Santa Clarita City Council approved annexing 1,885 acres in Canyon Country, a portion of which lies above Cemex's mineral rights. An application will be filed shortly with the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees municipal boundary changes in 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. Shapiro said circumstances surrounding the city's earlier unsuccessful attempts to annex an·nex tr.v. an·nexed, an·nex·ing, an·nex·es 1. To append or attach, especially to a larger or more significant thing. 2. the site have not changed. He plans to bring Cemex's concerns about the city's current annexation annexation, in international law, formal act by which a state asserts its sovereignty over a territory previously outside its jurisdiction. Many kinds of territory have been subject to annexation, chief among them those inhabited by settlers of the annexing power, proposal before LAFCO LAFCO Local Agency Formation Commission LAFCO Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative . Judy O'Rourke, (661) 257-5255 judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com |
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