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impacted” by the outcome of DWR’s pending preparation of an EIR for the Monterey

Agreement/Monterey Amendments as a whole. For this reason, the trial court issued a

writ commanding CLWA to set aside its approval of its 2004 EIR for the transfer of the

41,000 AFY of SWP water from KCWD, and to comply with CEQA, either through the
preparation of a new EIR or an addendum “addressing the analytic route of the three

water allocations.” Judge Chalfant expressly ruled that that the transfer itself would not

be set aside.

With this part of the related litigation in mind, we can now take a look at the

proposed project at the heart of the appeal which is before us today.
IV. The Proposed Industrial Park Project, and the EIR Process for the Project

A. The Proposed Project

In 1999, Gate King Properties submitted a series of project requests to the City of

Santa Clarita related to a proposal to develop an industrial/commercial park on a 584-acre

site in the southern portion of the City. As described in our prior opinion, Gate King’s
original proposal envisioned the development of approximately 4.45 million square feet

of industrial/commercial structures on 170.1 acres, with another 64.3 acres dedicated to

rights-of-way (including public streets) and water wells. The remaining acreage was to

include a combination of slopes, trails and open space. (See California Oak, supra, 133

Cal.App.4th at p. 1224.)
Gate King’s proposed project envisions that the water which will be consumed on

site by the industrial park’s eventual occupants will be delivered at the retail level by the

Newhall County Water District (NCWD). Moving up along the supply channel, NCWD

obtains water at the wholesale level from the CLWA, and, as noted above, CLWA

obtains water from the SWP, including an entitlement/transfer of an additional 41,000
AFY of SWP water from the KCWA.

B. The EIR Process for Gate King’s Proposed Project

In January 2002, the City circulated a draft EIR for Gate King’s proposed project.

Section 4.10 of the City’s draft EIR addressed the subject of “Utilities,” including “Water

Supplies.” The discussion of water supplies explained that the NCWD would supply

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