Newhall Ranch Housing Project
From the Newhall Signal, June 21, 1994
Here is the Newhall-Potrere oil field inside of the huge Newhall Ranch housing project (surrounded by the blue line). All the oil well locations are shown plus the location of the wells on the Castaic Junction and Del Valle oil fields. The Pico Canyon oil field (labeled as Newhall Field) is at the bottom. From the Newhall Ranch EIR, Map 4.17-1, 2009. See the complete map here.
In June of 1994, Newhall Land and Farming Company announced a massive new housing project called the "Newhall Ranch". This new community would occupy 19 square miles and would include 22,330 homes to be constructed over 25 years into five residential villages. There would also be a business park, a golf course, 172 acres of parkland, and many new schools. 45% of the property would be open space.
However, three oil fields (Newhall-Potrero, Del Valle, and Castaic Junction) were in the project area and would need special attention. For urban development to take place over old oil fields, remediation (cleaning up) must be done. Before local building permits are issued, DOGGR's (at that time - now CalGEM) well recommendations and requirements had to be implemented. Wells more than 10 feet from a proposed structure had to tested for leakage, whether it be oil, gas, or some other fluid. Leaking wells would have to be abandoned or re-abandoned. Wells within ten feet or beneath a proposed structure, whether or not they have already been abandoned, would have to be plugged and abandoned to current standards before a building permit for the structure would be issued.
In 1999 the Newhall Ranch was approved by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. However, lawsuits for environmental issues would delay any contruction for many years.
Description in the original NLFC lease to Barnsdall regarding the restoration of the land.
On January 30, 2001, the Newhall Land and Farming Company filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the companies then operating the oil and gas leases claiming that they were responsible for extensive contamination on 1300 acres of the Newhall Ranch project and had not properly cleaned or restored the oil field under the terms of the leases. See here for more details of the case.
In 2003, a negotiated setlement agreement was reached for the remediation of the field. The agreement required that any contaminants found on the lease be cleaned to state-determined contaminant levels suitable for residental development.
As a result of the settlement agreement and related 2003 Amendment to the Rancho San Francisco Oil and Gas Lease, NLFC acquired the right to buy-out the entirety of the oil and gas leases or any active well-site at any time during the remainder of the oil and gas lease life to permit the orderly development of the surface consistent with the specific plan for the area. If not earlier terminated by NLFC, the Rancho San Francisco Oil and Gas Lease will automatically end in the year 2020. Upon termination of the lease, whenever that may occur, any remaining environmental impacts from oil and gas operations would be remediated in accordance with the more stringent cleanup standards established by the settlement agreement.
I don't want to detail the many changes of ownership of the NLFC, but in 2016 the NLFC became a subsidiary of FivePoint Holdings, LLC. In 2019, FivePoint changed the project name from Newhall Ranch to FivePoint Valencia. The Potrero Valley is one of the "neighborhoods" of FivePoint Valencia and has its own website here. The website says that Potrero Valley is still in the planning stages with its own tract map (No. 61911), which has not been approved by Los Angeles County yet. Therefore, the construction date is unknown. (It's 8/2024 when I write this.)
Aerial photo of the Newhall-Potrero Oil Field and vicinity in 2024 from Google Maps. So far, the only construction is in the northeast portion (upper right on the map) of the project area. The oil field looks like it is cleared off and ready for construction.