The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday denied an appeal, clearing the way for Homestead South, a 3,617-home development south of State Route 126 and west of the FivePoint Mission Village project.
The plans are part of Valencia by FivePoint, a development formerly referred to as the Newhall Ranch Specific Plan that has been in the works for decades. The project has been the subject of a lawsuit and what’s been called a landmark legal decision. L.A. County planning officials say there have been two reviews of the project: the initial specific plan, and a Newhall Ranch Resource Management Development Plan/Spineflower Conservation Plan Joint Environmental Impact Statement/EIR — a state-certified review that resulted from the legal challenge.
The Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment and Friends of the Santa Clara River had appealed the Regional Planning Commission’s approval of the plans last month; the supervisors’ Tuesday vote rejected that appeal.
FivePoint CEO Dan Hedigan called the Board of Supervisors’ unanimous approval at Tuesday’s meeting “another important step forward” toward the company’s goal of a balanced, sustainable community.
“Homestead South is part of the overall Newhall Ranch Specific Plan that has been part of the county’s vision for this valley for more than two decades,” Hedigan wrote in a statement shared via email by Eric Morgan, vice president of community affairs for FivePoint Holdings. “It will help expand much-needed housing and create job opportunities for Los Angeles County families while preserving surrounding open space as part of our longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship. We are grateful to the many residents, business organizations, civic groups, and community leaders who voiced their support for this next phase and helped make this milestone possible.”
When the original Newhall Ranch project was approved, according to SCOPE President Lynne Plambeck, each village was supposed to get its own environmental impact review — something she says hasn’t happened here. In a phone interview Tuesday, she reiterated concerns about the project’s proximity to the ongoing environmental crisis at Chiquita Canyon Landfill, where a prolonged underground elevated-temperature event has driven odor and health complaints from thousands of neighbors.
“It’s not about stopping projects,” Plambeck said of her appeal. “It’s about doing the best you can for the public to ensure the public’s safety in the future, and it’s the safety of the community, as well as the safety of future residents.” She wanted to see mitigation of the landfill’s problems and questioned the project’s sustainability forecast, saying its remote location makes it dependent on car travel.
Some of the concessions won through previous challenges to the project include a spineflower reserve and a “net-zero greenhouse gases” plan intended to encourage sustainable travel.
During the project’s approval by the Regional Planning Commission last month, Homestead South’s plans drew numerous positive comments from neighboring residents, who spoke on how FivePoint’s community designs have improved their connectivity to the area.
L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger issued a statement after the project’s approval Tuesday, saying it would deliver thousands of much-needed homes to the area.
“Increasing housing supply is one of the most important tools we have to address the housing shortage crisis in our state. This project will deliver more than 3,600 much-needed homes, and more than 200 of these affordable units will provide missing-middle housing for essential and middle-wage workers, including teachers and nurses,” she wrote in a statement sent via email by an aide. “Beyond housing, the project provides major investment in infrastructure, including a new fire station and new parks. I take the responsibility to balance housing needs with environmental stewardship seriously, and I’m confident this project reflects that balance.”
