The proposed 60,000-population Newhall Ranch development began a recent winning streak with an LA Superior Court ruling Jan. 31 on water supply adequacy and greenouse gases in the project's Phase 1 EIR – as reported in a Santa Clarita Valley Signal news story whose comments section reflects fierce local debate: http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/113952/. In another decision that supports the project, the Castaic Lake Water Agency's recent acquisition of the Valencia Water Company received a PUC approval in February per documents made available at http://bit.ly/1j90b8v by an opponent of both decisions, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE).

In early March, environmental and tribal groups filed a federal suit contesting Clean Water Act approvals by the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA based on potential environmental effects and potential intrusion on Chumash heritage and burial sites. For details see the LA Times at http://lat.ms/1gDxhW8 and the site of one of the plaintiffs, Friends of the Santa Clara River, at http://www.fscr.org/html/newhall.html.

And then on March 20 California's Second District Court of Appeal backed the Newhall Land and Farming Co. by upholding a state Fish and Wildlife environmental impact statement that favors the project over objections from a similar group of plaintiffs, who said they would likely seek state Supreme Court review. The decision is at http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B245131.PDF and further details at http://lat.ms/1imoY5D.

Water board adjusts flow in farmers' favor but zero allocation still predicted

Over environmentalists' objections, the State Water Board issued orders March 18 allowing more Delta water to flow to farmers, and less out of the Delta, though it did not end the zero allocation forecasts of the Department of Water Resources and Bureau of Reclamation. The Sacramento Bee has details at http://bit.ly/PPsr3o. The orders themselves are on the State Water Resources Control Board site at http://bit.ly/1esWgiI.

Also in the news:

  • The California State University system has chosen not to build a new campus at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The Contra Costa Times has news of other redevelopment plans at http://bit.ly/Nxi1DX.
  • Los Angeles City Planning released its Draft Mobility Plan in mid-February, opening a comment period that ends May 13, 2014. See http://la2b.org/.
  • The L.A. Dept. of Water and Power, Sacramento and parts of the Metropolitan Water District are all paying homeowners to remove their lawns. See, respectively, http://lat.ms/1nCGjqV, http://bit.ly/1jRKxex and http://www.socalwatersmart.com/index.php/qualifyingproducts/turfremoval.
  • San Francisco's Measure B, which would subject all future waterfront height limit variances to referenda, survived a court challenge, keeping its place on the June 3 county ballot, but its campaign manager, Jon Golinger, was in hot water for trying to become the author of the official arguments both for and against the measure that he in fact supported. See http://bit.ly/1lVgxPt and http://bit.ly/1d6oama.
  • The L.A. Board of Supervisors has approved the proposed Local Coastal Program (LCP) for the Santa Monica Mountains, which has languished in part-drafted form since 1986. As the Malibu Times reports at http://bit.ly/1iJf8LX, Zev Yaroslavsky wrote a furious response to local critics at http://zev.lacounty.gov/blog/exposing-a-mountain-of-deceit. The plan still awaits final Coastal Commission adoption. For the LCP see http://planning.lacounty.gov/coastal.