A legal settlement last month seemed to signal the end of the decades-long fight over the Tejon Ranch Company’s Centennial Project. But the environmental challenges will continue.
Excerpt from this story from LAist:
A judge has ruled that two environmental groups may move forward with a lawsuit against a planned sprawling development at the rural northern edge of Los Angeles County.
The Tejon Ranch Company’s Centennial Project was first proposed two decades ago, and has been mired in environmental review and legal challenges ever since.
Despite a recent settlement with a third environmental organization, an L.A. County judge decided last week to allow the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) to continue with their lawsuit challenging the project.
“This is just the wrong style of development for the 21st century,” said Nick Jensen, conservation program director for the California Native Plant Society. “We can have solutions to our housing crisis that don't put the environment and public safety at risk.”
The proposed master-planned development would bring nearly 20,000 new homes to a remote area about 65 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, just south of the Kern County line.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the project in 2019 after years of review. Part of the approval hinged on the developer’s agreement to set aside 18% of new homes as affordable housing.
Soon after the county’s approval, environmental organizations sued to block the development, citing the destruction of native grassland and wildflowers — as well as the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from placing about 57,000 new residents far from existing population centers.
