With Los Angeles County approval of the first phase of the Newhall Ranch project in the bag, Newhall Land officials unveiled plans on Friday for their next city-sized “smart growth” community, a 30,000 home project dubbed Luna Fields located on Earth’s Moon.
“Here at LNR/Newhall Land, we don’t rest on our laurels,” Newhall Land’s President of Communications Marlee Lauffer told the Signal on Friday. “We fought anti-growth activists for 12 years over Newhall Ranch, and now that we’ve won, we’re ready for the next exciting chapter in our company’s impressive history,” she said from her office on Valencia Blvd.

Lauffer told the Signal that the company that built Valencia and other areas of the SCV will build a smart community in the last wild and untamed open space visible to residents in Santa Clarita: Earth’s moon.

Once approved by County authorities, Luna Fields will feature some 28,000 single family homes and 2,000 town homes or condominiums in a mixed-use setting that emphasizes “smart planning” and ease of transportation. Pedestrians on the Moon’s surface will travel between homes, workplaces and entertainment destinations on special “Gravity-Assist Paseos” or GAPs and solar-powered Moon buggies.

Mass transit gateways in Luna Fields will offer convenient three day commutes to earth on a congestion-free sky highway.

“From a developer’s standpoint, the Moon is an ideal environment to build an affordable, family-friendly community of single family homes, and the perfect follow-up to the inevitable success of Newhall Ranch,” Lauffer said.

“Future residents of Luna Fields will have inspiring views of Earth. Construction in the low gravity environment will be fast, easy and cheap,” she said, pointing to an artist’s rendering of a home model on the moon’s surface.

Lauffer says Luna Ranch’s carbon footprint and its impact on global warming will be negligible since the massive city isn’t located on earth.

“And perhaps most of all, anti-growth activism on the moon is weak. There is no one located on the Moon to file pesky lawsuits about the Moon’s riparian habitats or the lack of water on Earth’s nearest neighbor,” she said, referring to the decade long battle to create Newhall Ranch here on Earth.

Local reaction to the unprecedented project was mixed.

“They’ve finally done it. Having subjugated and conquered all the available open space land in and around Santa Clarita, Newsprawl Land has no place left to turn but the last wild, undeveloped space visible from Santa Clarita, the moon. They simply can’t resist,” SCOPE president Lynne Plambeck told the Signal. “I can’t believe it.”

Plambeck wondered how Newhall Land would provide water for Luna Fields’ planned 70,000 residents. Lauffer says the innovative lunar community will recycle much of its water, and taxpayer-funded moon-canals will be built to transport melted polar ice cap water from the moon’s North Pole.  California State Water Project water will also be shuttled to the community from the company’s space port in Agua Dulce.

Across town, Realtor Max Powers had a different take on Luna Fields, Newhall Land’s first extraterrestrial housing development.

“I can sell it,” Powers said. “This development offers fantastic views, an exotic location, smart planning, and affordable homes,” he said.

To earth-bound environmentalists who may decry Luna Fields’ impact on the moon’s environment, Powers had this to say. “Look, the moon is not doing anything just sitting there. Open space is wasted space as far as I’m concerned.”

Across the street from Newhall Land’s offices, City officials convened a meeting Friday and developed a strategy to influence the project. Though the moon technically lies in unincorporated Los Angeles County territory, city officials hope to use the “sphere of influence” argument to ensure that any impacts on the City of Santa Clarita are mitigated by the developer or the County.

“We’re not opposed to Luna Fields in theory, we just want to make sure any impacts on Santa Clarita are managed and properly mitigated,” Mayor Bob Kellar told The Signal. Kellar said it had never occurred to the city to use its recently-approved open space initiative funds to purchase tracts of land on the Moon.

Meanwhile, West Ranch Town Council President Dave Bossert petitioned County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to place the Luna Fields development under the auspices of the council he presides over.

“Once built, Luna Fields will be a perfect fit with the Stevenson Ranch, West Ridge, and Newhall Ranch communities,” Bossert said, adding that the combined communities would “surely” have the economic base to form their own city.

If approved, construction of Luna Fields may begin in 2010 with a completion date of 2020.