Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar today issued the following statement in response to the Los Angeles City Council's vote not to seek the annexation necessary for the Las Lomas development to be built in the city of Los Angeles.

"On behalf of the people of Santa Clarita, I am very pleased that the city of Los Angeles voted today to deliver a deadly blow to the proposed Las Lomas development. This development would have been massive both in size and in negative impacts on surrounding communities, including the City of Santa Clarita.

"Las Lomas as proposed is absolutely the wrong project in the wrong place. I am proud to be part of the coalition of organizations that has worked diligently to prevent this project from being approved at any level and by any agency. I would like to sincerely thank Los Angeles Councilmember Greig Smith for his effectiveness in leading the charge against this poorly planned and dangerous development.

"Further, I would like to thank the entire Los Angeles City Council for the frank, productive and positive collaboration between the cities of Santa Clarita and Los Angeles on this issue. By working together to identify the risks Las Lomas posed to the entire region, we were able to stop this development before the lives of any residents of Southern California were affected."

Las Lomas was proposed to be a massive, multi-use development, which would have added more than 5,500 units of housing, more than 2.7 million square feet of office, retail and community service space and a 300-room hotel to the hillsides adjacent to the Interstate 5/State Route 14 interchange.

On Nov. 13, 2007, the Santa Clarita City Council unanimously approved a formal resolution opposing the Las Lomas development.

Today, that coalition of opposition to this project includes U.S. Congressmen Howard P. "Buck" McKeon and Brad Sherman, California State Sens. Alex Padilla and Shelia Kuehl, California State Assemblymembers Cameron Smyth and Julia Brownley , Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, the Santa Clarita City Council, L.A. City Council Member Greig Smith, more than a dozen local organizations including the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, GREEN LA, and the Santa Clarita Valley and Chatsworth/Porter Ranch Chambers of Commerce as well as nearly a dozen neighborhood councils and organizations.

For more information regarding the proposed Las Lomas development plan, please call the city of Santa Clarita at 661-255-4300 or visit www.santa-clarita.com/news/laslomas/.