Newhall Ranch a Regional Test

In Los Angeles County, the agency charged with monitoring and regulating development is called the Regional Planning Department. But many in Ventura County find the name something of a misnomer because the department often acts as if the region ends at the county line and shepherds projects through without regard to their impact on neighboring jurisdictions.

So it goes with Newhall Ranch, a city-sized housing project proposed between the city of Santa Clarita and the Ventura County line. Over the next 25 years, housing giant Newhall Land & Farming Co. wants to build a community big enough to house 70,000 people on land that is now largely vacant. Yet despite the fact that Ventura County would bear many of the nasty side effects from the project--including more traffic, increased development pressure and concerns over water rights--its officials have virtually no say over whether the project ultimately gets built.

Why?

Newhall Ranch falls entirely within Los Angeles County, so the Board of Supervisors in downtown Los Angeles decides its fate. To mitigate the project’s negative impacts, Los Angeles County can negotiate all sorts of deals with the developer to cover additional costs of providing everything from police and fire protection to new roads and sewers. Plus, the county can count on future property tax revenues. But across an imaginary line in Ventura County, none of those benefits accrue.

It’s hardly the smartest way to plan a sprawling region like Southern California, where sticking it to the next jurisdiction over has been elevated almost to an art form. Remember Ahmanson Ranch? Despite all the goodies that project promised Ventura County, all its traffic dumped into Los Angeles County. No wonder it wound up in court. That, it seems, is where Newhall Ranch is headed as opponents ask legitimate questions about the project’s water supply and its effect on the Santa Clara River.

With Newhall Ranch, Los Angeles County officials have the opportunity to live up to their name and truly plan on a regional level. That means more than just giving Ventura County a cursory ear. It means considering the project’s effect on an entire region--one that stretches literally from Ventura to Irvine. It means, simply, asking whether the project is the right one for that land and for where the region wants to be a quarter-century from now.