6/28/2000 805

THREATENED SUIT OVER ENDANGERED SPECIES CAUSES CANCELATION OF MASSIVE L.A. DEVELOPMENT PERMIT

In response to a formal notice of intent to sue by the Center for Biological Diversity and SCOPE (Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has withdrawn a permit approving the construction of 3,000 homes and a golf course on 1,795 acres in the Santa Clarita Valley of Los Angeles County. The development is planned along San Francisquito Creek, a tributary of the Santa Clara River 30 miles north of Los Angeles, adjacent to the Angeles National Forest. The Army Corps issued the permit for the Tesoro Del Valle development without review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service even though it would harm numerous endangered species including the Slender horned-spineflower, Arroyo southwestern toad, Least Bell's vireo, Southwestern willow flycatcher, and the California red legged frog. Most imperiled by the development is the unarmored threespine stickleback (a fish) which could be driven to extinction. The Santa Clara River system is the last remaining semi-intact river system in the concrete-and-shopping-mall dominated greater Los Angeles area. Developers plan to wipe out this last vestige of open space with nearly 100,000 development units approved in the last 10 years. Tens of thousands more are in the planning process. The Army Corps will reissue a permit for Tesoro Del Valle, but only after review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. That review will hopefully drastically reduce the scale and impact of the development. The Center and SCOPE have launched a aggressive campaign to save the Santa Clara River valley from greed and needless destruction. We are represented in this round by attorney Babak Naficy (Los Angeles).