Newhall Ranch Development

Re “Supervisors OK 21,000-Home Development,� Nov. 25:

The approval of the massive new housing project in the Santa Clarita area further aggravates the environmental, social and transportation difficulties of this region. How can L.A. County permit the further desecration of open space so that a builder can construct another banal, empty, wind-swept, sterile and monotonous subdivision?

How are the thousands of new residents going to get to work every day? Why, the freeway, of course. Is there going to be light rail to this 12,000-acre monstrosity? Of course not. Whatever happened to concerns about clean air, open space, scenic beauty? Downtown Los Angeles will remain a barren, forbidding moonscape, while the once-virgin mountains and wildlife of the Newhall Ranch will be forever decimated as the mega-developers bulldoze in the name of shortsightedness, greed, citizen apathy and rapacious ignorance.

ANDREW B. HURVITZ, Studio City

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I just don’t see why cities and counties continue to bicker about water supply. Instead of shelling out thousands and sometimes millions of dollars for court battles, the powers that be should be investing in seawater desalination. Although it requires a good chunk of money upfront to build a desalination plant, once the plant is in place it only costs pennies per gallon to operate and a single plant can provide fresh water for thousands of people every day. And best of all, there are no chemicals.

Shouldn’t we be investing in our future instead of bickering over it?

WILLIAM BERG-HILLINGER, Valencia