In Her Position, Controversy Comes With the Territory

VALENCIA —  Marlee Lauffer’s job is not for the faint of heart.

As vice president of corporate communications for the Newhall Land & Farming Co., Lauffer is the person the media and the public turn to most often with questions about Newhall Ranch, a controversial 22,000-home project along the Santa Clara River near the Ventura County line.

The project, approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in March, has drawn fire from citizen groups and Ventura County officials, who filed a lawsuit in May challenging its environmental impact report.

Serving as spokeswoman for Newhall Ranch and other Newhall Land projects has often put Lauffer face-to-face with vehement foes posing angry questions at public forums, but she says that’s part and parcel of the development world today.

“Our industry is one of the most regulated in the country, and development has become a very controversial issue. There are people who make it a priority to oppose any and all development, period,” she said.

There is a difference of opinion on that point. Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jill Klajic, who opposes Newhall Ranch, says developers tend to push development no matter what the consequences.

“Her job is to to pretend that problems don’t exist,” Klajic said.

For Lauffer, such give-and-take is all part of the job. Her 10 years with Newhall Land have coincided with a decade in which, she said, women have made substantial inroads into the traditionally male-dominated world of real estate development. However, she said gender has never been an issue in her job.

“I grew up with three brothers, so I don’t think about it,” she said.

Lauffer concedes that real estate development remains pretty much a man’s world, although she says that’s changing as more women become residential and commercial developers.

“You’re seeing more commercial real estate brokers who are women, too, which you didn’t see 10 years ago,” Lauffer said.

Women have made progress recently in many segments of the real estate industry, according to Susan Goodman, a past president and founding member of the Los Angeles chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women.

The local CREW chapter has grown to 150 members from about 50 members at its founding 15 years ago, Goodman said.

Lauffer, a UCLA graduate with a degree in political science, began her career by spending a year with a small Orange County public relations agency that specialized in political issues.

“As a political science major, I was very politically involved and issues-oriented, so focusing on community and media relations was very natural for me,” she said.

In her job at Newhall, Lauffer oversees a staff of four. Besides answering the news media’s calls, the department stays in touch with businesspeople, investors, Wall Street analysts, homeowner groups, chambers of commerce and other community associations. In addition, it stages a number of community events, such as a recent Italian street-painting festival at Town Center in Valencia.

Lauffer attends most of the public meetings on the company’s projects, visits community and homeowners groups to make presentations on the company’s plans, and meets with a host of other people and groups in her community relations capacity.

Issues that concern homeowners groups run the gamut, according to Ray Potocki, longtime president of the Bungalows Homeowners Assn. in Valencia.

Potocki said he once called Lauffer to complain about gaudy banners stretched across some apartment buildings in Valencia to attract new tenants. The banners were removed by the end of the day, Potocki said.

Both Potocki and Robert Kaplan, former president of the Valencia Summit Homeowners Assn., praised Lauffer for keeping the homeowner groups informed about Newhall Land’s plans. Kaplan pointed out that Lauffer visits his group regularly to deliver updates on the company’s activities.