TEJON RANCH: A SPRAWL TOO FAR?

On October 5, 2009, the Kern County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve the Tejon Mountain Village (TMV) Specific Plan, the first phase and most environmentally damaging part of the largest development project ever proposed in the State of California by an LLC composed of the Tejon Ranch Company and DMB of Scottsdale, AZ.

The TMV Specific Plan endeavors to build 3,450 homes (including condominiums, apartments, and townhouses) in a private gated community on lots ranging from 6,700 square feet to over 20 acres.  They also seek authorization for 160,000 sf of commercial buildings, 750 resort hotel rooms, two heliports, two 18-hole golf courses and about 320,000 sf of support space for commercial amenities.

All of this is slated for ridges and hillsides mapped by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as Critical California Condor Habitat, including flight pathways, the only significant feeding area close to the Sespe-Piru nesting site, and the Tejon deer herd -- a forage source for the wild population.  In 1987, there were only 22 condors left in the world, and after the most aggressive effort to bring an endangered species back from the brink of extinction, the Condor Recovery Program has increased the population of wild birds to 188 in California.  Protection of critical habitat is integral to the bird's continued survival.  The FWS still has not approved Tejon's Habitat Conservation Plan and Incidental Take Permit and is not expected to do so anytime soon.

The project also threatens to overwhelm Interstate 5 with traffic; poses serious questions about water availability; impacts Native American sacred sites; will expose thousands of new residents and millions of dollars of real estate to serious threat of wildfire destruction as residents of the neighboring Angeles National Forest can attest; and begs the question how much more can we stress our environmental sustainability as our urban boundaries continue to encroach on the already encroached-upon wildlands.  The Center for Biological Diversity along with local groups have filed suit against the Kern County decision. 

An agreement in April 2008 between five major environmental groups and the Tejon Ranch Company has arranged for the long-term preservation of 90 percent of Tejon Ranch, the largest contiguous privately-owned piece of land in California, 270,000 acres, located 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.  Comprising four distinct bioregions, where the Sierra Nevada rolls into the coastal range, and the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert join together across 7,000 foot mountains, its protection is the keystone to California's natural legacy, and is a significant achievement. 

As part of the deal, however, the groups have agreed not to oppose major development projects proposed for the remaining 10 percent of the Ranch.  These include in addition to Tejon Mountain Village, the massive Centennial, 23,000 homes or maybe 70,000 new residents to the highlands, and the I-5 Tejon Industrial Complex.  See http://www.tejonpreserve.com/ for details.  WHP asserts that these projects would not only spell jeopardy for the condor, but the regional environmental sustainability of Southern California as well.  See WHP's response in the LA Times to this destructive urban sprawl, the press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, and the original article in the Times.  See also www.savetejonranch.org/

THANKS TO PRESSURE FROM 90 ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, PXP-TRANQUILLON RIDGE OFFSHORE DRILLING PROPOSAL OFF THE TABLE -- FOR NOW 

Governor Schwarzenegger and his Department of Finance, facing major budget deficits, conspired TWICE to overthrow two separate decisions by the State Lands Commission that denied a bid by Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP) the first new offshore drilling lease in the California Coastal Sanctuary in 40 years.

On January 29, 2009, the California State Lands Commission, headed by Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and Controller John Chiang, voted down a proposal by PXP and Santa Barbara environmental groups to slant drill from existing Platform Irene into the state waters.  PXP  promised a $100 million up-front "signing bonus" and a couple of billion dollars for state and local coffers over the life of the project.  As well, they pledged to close operations at four platforms and two onshore processing plants by 2022, donate 4,000 acres of land in Lompoc and Gaviota, and contribute $1.5 million towards hybrid buses.  After the State Lands staff found the deal to have unenforceable end dates, many questions about title on donated lands, and significant concerns about oil spills and blow-outs on the coastal ecosystem, the commission voted 2-1 against the proposal.

Not least of the issues is the political precedent of allowing the first drilling in the state sanctuary in 40 years.  Though proponents of the deal claim that this is a one-time exception, Californians must face the reality that offshore drilling leases in the Outer Continental Shelf are under consideration by the Federal Department of the Interior for the entire coast from Mendocino to La Jolla.  Selling the Santa Barbara coast to oil companies, with no guarantee of the environmental benefits, creates an ominous precedent while we simultaneously advocate to reinstate the federal moratorium aganist new drilling.

The assertion that with new technology, blowouts at offshore rigs are a thing of the past has been proven false with the massive spill from the West Atlas Rig in the Timor Sea off the magical West Australian Kimberley Coast.  The spewing of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil has created a slick the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island.  Because of the logistics involved, the gushing oil will not be capped for another month, which will severely impact migrating whales and turtles and may reach the rocky coast. 

See Jack Eidt featured in University Link Magazine regarding WHP's opposition to the Tranquillon Ridge Proposal.

Read the letters published by Wild Heritage Planners and the organized opposition to the original deal in the Santa Barbara Independent...

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/mar/19/state-lands-was-right-reject-slant-drilling-deal/

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/mar/12/no-deals-oil/

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TRESTLES BEACH AND THE SAN MATEO WATERSHED SAVED!

COMMERCE DEPARTMENT UPHOLDS COASTAL COMMISSION DECISION TO DENY THE EXTENSION OF THE SR 241 TOLL ROAD THROUGH SAN ONOFRE STATE PARK. 

The Department of Commerce denied the bid by the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency to override the California Coastal Commission's decision last February denying the Coastal Consistency Permit for the SR 241 toll road extension.  Federal officials could only override the state's decision if the project had no alternatives or was necessary to national security, and the announcement on December 18, 2008 said neither of those criteria were met.

  The Coastal Zone Management Act, approved in 1972, was designed to protect endangered species, wetlands, archaeological sites, public access, and recreational resources.  Proposed through San Onofre State Beach and the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy, the Coastal Commission did not consider the merits of building a new road worth destroying a popular campground, a world class surfbreak, the Native American sacred site of Panhe, and a wilderness conservancy protecting one of the last undeveloped watersheds in Southern California.  Wild Heritage Planners has worked with the TCA, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), as well as all local and regional governing bodies to identify alternatives that would preserve state park and wilderness areas while providing for future mobility given the proposed 14,000-home Rancho Mission Viejo project slated for inland South Orange County.   

Please click here and here for WHP's alternative vision for South Orange County Transportation.

See http://www.savetrestles.com/

http://morecollamer.blogspot.com/ and http://www.abolishtca.com/

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Wild Heritage Planners is a consultant and advocacy organization dedicated to improving urban centers and existing neighborhoods through smart growth and sustainable environmental planning, formulating transportation alternatives, while preserving wilderness and open spaces.

WHP collaborates with local and regional governments, land developers, non-profits, neighborhood groups, and private citizens to offer educated and balanced solutions to environmental and urban growth issues that maximize public benefit while protecting property rights and sensitive habitats.