STATE UTILITIES PANEL APPROVES NEWHALL LAND SALE TO LENNAR.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - The $1 billion purchase of The Newhall Land and Farming Company by Miami-based real estate giant Lennar Corp. received final clearance Thursday from the California Public Utilities Commission, paving the way for the national developer to take over the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch project.

The deal, originally made July 21, passed on a 4-1 PUC vote with the lone dissenting commissioner, Loretta Lynch, expressing misgivings about the lack of public hearings related to the transfer of ownership of the Valencia Water Co., a utility owned and operated by Newhall Land.

Newhall Land and Lennar officials celebrated the decision but said that little will noticeably change as a result of the purchase.

``We're very excited about this. We feel great,'' said Emile Haddad, regional president of Lennar Corp., which partnered with LNR Property Corp. to buy Newhall Land. ``You won't see anything different from what Newhall has been doing. We are very excited and looking forward to playing a bigger role in that community.''

The acquisition will be complete within seven business days, according to Marlee Lauffer, a Newhall Land vice president who called Lennar ``a reputable suitor.''

``Lennar and LNR have some wonderful resources that can assist us. We know that this relationship is going to be good for our community, our business partners and our employees,'' Lauffer said.

But community and environmental activists who have opposed the deal - including the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, the Sierra Club and Public Citizen - argue that a Florida company should not have control over a local utility, especially one entrenched in complex local water issues. The groups raised these concerns prior to Thursday's hearing but were denied an opportunity to address the issues publicly.

The issues include perchlorate pollution, preferential service extensions and possible conflict of interest.

``I'm glad to see that at least one of the commissioners is paying close attention to the concern that the community is raising about the water supply, and the conflict of interest of having a developer own a water company, said Juliette Beck, a coordinator for the activist group Public Citizen. ``We hope that the other commissioners will pay closer attention to this problem in the future.''

``It wasn't unexpected,'' said Lynne Plambeck, president of SCOPE.

Lynch said she voted against the deal because she believes that when community groups request public hearings they should be granted. She said her fellow commissioners ignored important concerns raised by SCOPE and Public Citizen about perchlorate pollution.

``We didn't have hearings on what the real impacts are going to be. We took a very crimped view at what was the ratepayers' and the public interest,'' Lynch said. ``Generally, community groups do not come before us, and in those cases when they do, we should bend over backward to give those groups their day in court. We just shut the door on them.''

However, Newhall and Lennar officials successfully convinced an administrative judge that the transfer of the Valencia Water Co. would not alter how the water company operates.

``We presented our case in writing before the judge and the judge determined that public hearings were not needed,'' Haddad said.

And on a 4-1 vote, the commission agreed.

``As there are no disputed issues of material fact to resolve in evidentiary hearings, we determine that a hearing is not needed,'' according to the draft decision to approve the sale of Newhall Land.

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com