Tejon Mountain Village
Encyclopedia
Tejon Mountain Village is a proposed residential, commercial, and recreational development of pristine, rugged property in the Tehachapi Mountains
owned by the Tejon Ranch
Company in Lebec
, southern Kern County, California
. The development includes the largest conservation and land-use
agreement in California history. It was approved by the county's Board of Supervisors in October 2009. Opponents have launched a legal challenge.
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The pact between the Tejon Ranch Company and a coalition of environmental groups, announced in May 2008, is designed to permanently protect 240000 acres (971.2 km²) of the historic ranch, including a vast amount outside the borders of the Tejon Mountain Village subdivision.
, the development would include homes, commercial buildings, hotels, and golf courses.
Tejon Mountain Village would be a 5082 acres (20.6 km²) gated community
amid 26,417 acres
of Tejon Ranch property. It would include two golf courses, 3,450 homes, a 160000 square feet (14,864.5 m²)-shopping center near Interstate 5
, and a maximum of 750 hotel rooms.
Residential lots would range in size from 6700 square feet (622.5 m²) to more than 20 acres (80,937.2 m²). There would be two heliports, two 18-hole golf courses, and about 320000 square feet (29,729 m²) of support space for the "commercial amenities."
The property would be developed by a new entity, Tejon Mountain Village LLC
, a joint enterprise of the Tejon Ranch Company and DMB Associates of Scottsdale, Arizona.
, filed a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court on November 12, 2009, to halt the development. The suit claimed the construction would threaten the California condor
and negatively affect sacred Chumash sites, degrade air quality, and add traffic to nearby Interstate 5
. On Nov. 5, 2010, Kern County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Twisselman ruled in favor of Kern County, Tejon Mountain Village and its development partner, DMB Associates. The Center for Biological Diversity appealed the ruling to the Fifth District Appellate Court in Fresno on February 9, 2011. It was joined by the TriCounty Watchdogs, the Wishtoyo Foundation (a Chumash-oriented group interested in the environment), and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.
, the California spotted owl
, and the California condor, according to the Center for Biological Diversity
of Tucson, Arizona. Only 150 condors were surviving in the wild in July 2008, and Tejon Ranch is one of the giant bird's prime habitats.
The Sierra Club made conserving as much of the Tejon Ranch as possible its top priority for California, Bill Corcoran, a senior regional representative, told the New York Times. He said, "There is no other place like this in California. It offers an unparalleled and irreplaceable connection between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges and the high desert
."
A coalition led by the Natural Resources Defense Council
, the Sierra Club, Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Endangered Habitat League worked with the Tejon Ranch Company to develop a program that, if carried out, would conserve 90 percent of the entire Tejon Ranch. In return, the coalition agreed it would not oppose the company's plans to build Tejon Mountain Village and another big development, Centennial
, in northwest Los Angeles County.
, which brings water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But Ernest Conant, attorney for the Tejon Castac Water District Board, replied that some analyses had considered what might happen if supplies from the state water project were cut back to as low as 50 percent.
model ordinance to control such pollution be adopted for the project.
Support for the project came from representatives of the Mountain Communities Chamber of Commerce, the Mountain Shakespeare Festival, the Kern County Board of Trade, and the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce.
David Laughing Horse Robinson, who said he was an elder of the tribe of Native Americans
, claimed in an e-mail that Tejon Ranch did not own the land beneath the proposed project. He said in a video later posted on Youtube.com that the land was "stolen."
His claim was countered a few days later by Julie Turner, secretary of the Kern Valley Indian Community, who said in a letter to Kern County Planners that Robinson "isn't the tribal chairman." And Laer Pierce, a spokesman for the Tejon project, said that a Tejon-Sebastian native reservation
existed only between 1853 and 1864, when the reservation was "dissolved by Congress."
On January 24, 2011, Federal court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled against Robinson, an instructional technician at California State University at Bakersfield.
Native American spokesmen said the project troubled them. Chumash ceremonial leader Mat Waiya said that Tejon Ranch had disturbed Indian cultural sites in the early 2000s but that the ranch had followed protocols since then. The developer has now agreed to provide a 2500 square feet (232.3 m²) facility in the commercial center for a museum that could serve as a repository for artifacts.
, or CEQA, with a "rushed public hearing process." And Patric Hedlund, the editor of a local weekly newspaper, the Mountain Enterprise
, wrote that the draft environmental impact report on the village was "15 notebooks, 13 of them 5.5 inches thick, two others adding four more inches, plus two rolls of large maps. They add up to a tower nearly six feet tall." She compared the report to "a six-foot stranger on the front porch, gawky and inscrutable, standing there for your consideration." The county also offered a set of four compact disks and put out a smaller, "2.5-foot stack" in the Frazier Park
library.
Lorelei Oviatt, division chief of Kern County's Planning Department, spoke at a subsequent community meeting to explain "how to navigate the data to make effective comments." "We believe this project has been thoroughly reviewed," Oviatt later told the Bakersfield Californian.
Tehachapi Mountains
The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...
owned by the Tejon Ranch
Tejon Ranch
The Tejon Ranch Company , based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. [The federally-gifted lands still held by the Catellus Corporation, a successor to the Southern Pacific Land Company, are much more extensive.] It was incorporated in 1936 to organise the...
Company in Lebec
Lebec, California
Lebec is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Kern County, California. It is one of the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass, and the home of the Tejon Ranch Company. Lebec is south of Bakersfield. The population was 1,468 in the 2010 census, up from 1,224 in...
, southern Kern County, California
Kern County, California
Spreading across the southern end of the California Central Valley, Kern County is the fifth-largest county by population in California. Its economy is heavily linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction, and there is a strong aviation and space presence. Politically, it has generally...
. The development includes the largest conservation and land-use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
agreement in California history. It was approved by the county's Board of Supervisors in October 2009. Opponents have launched a legal challenge.
The pact between the Tejon Ranch Company and a coalition of environmental groups, announced in May 2008, is designed to permanently protect 240000 acres (971.2 km²) of the historic ranch, including a vast amount outside the borders of the Tejon Mountain Village subdivision.
Planned development
Now approved by Kern County, but a matter of debate for years in the Mountain Communities of the Tejon PassMountain Communities of the Tejon Pass
The Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass, or the Frazier Mountain Communities, in the San Emigdio Mountains is a region of California that includes Lebec, Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods, Lockwood Valley, Pinon Pines, and Pine Mountain Club, in Kern County, California, and Gorman in Los Angeles...
, the development would include homes, commercial buildings, hotels, and golf courses.
Tejon Mountain Village would be a 5082 acres (20.6 km²) gated community
Gated community
In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly-controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential...
amid 26,417 acres
of Tejon Ranch property. It would include two golf courses, 3,450 homes, a 160000 square feet (14,864.5 m²)-shopping center near Interstate 5
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...
, and a maximum of 750 hotel rooms.
Houses and apartments would be grouped in small enclaves around the lake and on the level tops of surrounding ridges. Larger lot custom homes would rise from the more remote hilltops in the northwest and northeast sections of the development area. Buildings would be designed to fit into the existing land rather than the land being molded to fit the buildings.
Residential lots would range in size from 6700 square feet (622.5 m²) to more than 20 acres (80,937.2 m²). There would be two heliports, two 18-hole golf courses, and about 320000 square feet (29,729 m²) of support space for the "commercial amenities."
The property would be developed by a new entity, Tejon Mountain Village LLC
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
, a joint enterprise of the Tejon Ranch Company and DMB Associates of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Lawsuits
A coalition of environmentalists, Native Americans and local residents, including the Center for Biological DiversityCenter for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity based in Tucson, Arizona, is a nonprofit membership organization with approximately 220,000 members and online activists, known for its work protecting endangered species through legal action and scientific petitions...
, filed a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court on November 12, 2009, to halt the development. The suit claimed the construction would threaten the California condor
California Condor
The California Condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and coastal mountains of central and southern California and northern Baja California...
and negatively affect sacred Chumash sites, degrade air quality, and add traffic to nearby Interstate 5
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...
. On Nov. 5, 2010, Kern County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Twisselman ruled in favor of Kern County, Tejon Mountain Village and its development partner, DMB Associates. The Center for Biological Diversity appealed the ruling to the Fifth District Appellate Court in Fresno on February 9, 2011. It was joined by the TriCounty Watchdogs, the Wishtoyo Foundation (a Chumash-oriented group interested in the environment), and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.
Conditions
In return for the county's granting a 30-year permit to complete the development instead of the standard 10 years, the developers agreed to fund six community endeavors:- $500,000 for an expanded Frazier Mountain Park Community CenterCommunity centreCommunity centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
, which money would come from a fee of $1,000 on the first 500 residential units sold in the project. - $25,000 to the local Fire-Safe CouncilFire safe councilsFire safe councils are grassroots community-based organizations which share the objective of making California's communities less vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire...
to assist property owners in the Mountain Communities with fire-education efforts and preparation of a wildfire plan. - $7 yearly from each residence to support tax-exemptTax exemptionVarious tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
, nonprofit organizationsNon-profit organizationNonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
serving residents and to implement energy-efficiency programs in the Mountain Communities. - $70 per parcel per year for paramedic servicesParamedicA paramedic is a healthcare professional that works in emergency medical situations. Paramedics provide advanced levels of care for medical emergencies and trauma. The majority of paramedics are based in the field in ambulances, emergency response vehicles, or in specialist mobile units such as...
. - Dedication of a public multi-use trail along the western boundary of Castac Lake.
- Funding of 1.5 years of a deputy sheriff's position (to be effective six months after the first building permitConstruction permitA construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
is issued).
Environment
Principal objections in the county approval process concerned the effects on wildlife, lack of sufficient water, glare from lights, air pollution and damage to the existing community.Wildlife
Tejon Ranch, which is the largest contiguous parcel of privately owned land in the state, is home to about 80 rare or endangered species, including the bald eagleBald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...
, the California spotted owl
Spotted Owl
The Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis, is a species of true owl. It is a resident species of forests in western North America, where it nests in tree holes, old bird of prey nests, or rock crevices. Nests can be between 13 and 66 yards high and usually contain two eggs...
, and the California condor, according to the Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity based in Tucson, Arizona, is a nonprofit membership organization with approximately 220,000 members and online activists, known for its work protecting endangered species through legal action and scientific petitions...
of Tucson, Arizona. Only 150 condors were surviving in the wild in July 2008, and Tejon Ranch is one of the giant bird's prime habitats.
The Sierra Club made conserving as much of the Tejon Ranch as possible its top priority for California, Bill Corcoran, a senior regional representative, told the New York Times. He said, "There is no other place like this in California. It offers an unparalleled and irreplaceable connection between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges and the high desert
High Desert (California)
The High Desert is an unofficial and vaguely-defined geographic area of southern California located to the northeast of the San Gabriel Mountains. The term "High Desert" is used most commonly by the news media, especially in weather forecasts, and in the names of businesses and organizations...
."
A coalition led by the Natural Resources Defense Council
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a New York City-based, non-profit, non-partisan international environmental advocacy group, with offices in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing...
, the Sierra Club, Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Endangered Habitat League worked with the Tejon Ranch Company to develop a program that, if carried out, would conserve 90 percent of the entire Tejon Ranch. In return, the coalition agreed it would not oppose the company's plans to build Tejon Mountain Village and another big development, Centennial
Centennial, California
Centennial, California, is a proposed planned community between Bakersfield and Los Angeles in Los Angeles County located north of Highway 138, and just east of Interstate 5; specifically, surrounding the north and east sides of Quail Lake...
, in northwest Los Angeles County.
Water
D. Adam Lazar, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the county's Board of Supervisors at its October 5, 2009, hearing that there would not be enough water for the project since it was completely dependent on the California State Water ProjectCalifornia State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP , is the world's largest publicly built and operated water and power development and conveyance system. The SWP was designed and is operated by the California Department of Water Resources...
, which brings water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But Ernest Conant, attorney for the Tejon Castac Water District Board, replied that some analyses had considered what might happen if supplies from the state water project were cut back to as low as 50 percent.
Starlight
Responding to an objection that the development would ruin the dark skies of "a prime tourism area for amateur astronomers," county planner Lorelei Oviatt proposed and read into the record that the forthcoming Dark Sky SocietyDark-sky movement
The dark-sky movement is a campaign by people who want to reduce light pollution so people can see the stars, to reduce the effects of unnatural lighting on the environment, and to cut down on energy usage....
model ordinance to control such pollution be adopted for the project.
Air pollution
Residents who complained about the risk of increased air pollution were told by Oviatt that such concerns "had been addressed" by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.Community life
Two Planning Commissioners voted against the plan at the commission's September 10, 2009, meeting. One of them cited the "scale" of the undertaking, saying that "I can't help but feel that this isn't a plan that benefits the existing communities of Lebec and Frazier Park," and Keats of the Center for Biological Diversity compared the "corporate greed" of Wall Street, "which owns this company" to the drive to develop Tejon Mountain Village for the "helicopter playboys" who would live there.Support for the project came from representatives of the Mountain Communities Chamber of Commerce, the Mountain Shakespeare Festival, the Kern County Board of Trade, and the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce.
Native American claims
A federal court suit was also filed in November 2009 in Fresno by the Kawaiisu (KAH'-yah WAH'-soo) Tribe of Native Americans, arguing that U.S. officials failed to recognize the tribe's claim to areas of the 270000 acres (1,092.7 km²) Tejon Ranch property where the TMV project is planned and that the Kern County supervisors ignored the existence of historic tribal sites when they approved the plan. That suit sought an injunction suspending development and compensation for use of the land and the tribe's pain and suffering.David Laughing Horse Robinson, who said he was an elder of the tribe of Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, claimed in an e-mail that Tejon Ranch did not own the land beneath the proposed project. He said in a video later posted on Youtube.com that the land was "stolen."
His claim was countered a few days later by Julie Turner, secretary of the Kern Valley Indian Community, who said in a letter to Kern County Planners that Robinson "isn't the tribal chairman." And Laer Pierce, a spokesman for the Tejon project, said that a Tejon-Sebastian native reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
existed only between 1853 and 1864, when the reservation was "dissolved by Congress."
On January 24, 2011, Federal court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled against Robinson, an instructional technician at California State University at Bakersfield.
Native American spokesmen said the project troubled them. Chumash ceremonial leader Mat Waiya said that Tejon Ranch had disturbed Indian cultural sites in the early 2000s but that the ranch had followed protocols since then. The developer has now agreed to provide a 2500 square feet (232.3 m²) facility in the commercial center for a museum that could serve as a repository for artifacts.
Sufficiency of notice
Adam Keats, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said he believed the county had violated the California Environmental Quality ActCalifornia Environmental Quality Act
The California Environmental Quality Act is a California statute passed in 1970, shortly after the United States federal government passed the National Environmental Policy Act , to institute a statewide policy of environmental protection...
, or CEQA, with a "rushed public hearing process." And Patric Hedlund, the editor of a local weekly newspaper, the Mountain Enterprise
Mountain Enterprise
The is a weekly newspaper circulating in the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass in the Tehachapi Mountains region of California, midway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Its sister publication is The New Mountain Pioneer, published monthly....
, wrote that the draft environmental impact report on the village was "15 notebooks, 13 of them 5.5 inches thick, two others adding four more inches, plus two rolls of large maps. They add up to a tower nearly six feet tall." She compared the report to "a six-foot stranger on the front porch, gawky and inscrutable, standing there for your consideration." The county also offered a set of four compact disks and put out a smaller, "2.5-foot stack" in the Frazier Park
Frazier Park, California
Frazier Park is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Kern County, California. Frazier Park is west of Lebec, at an elevation of 4,639 feet . It is one of the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass...
library.
Lorelei Oviatt, division chief of Kern County's Planning Department, spoke at a subsequent community meeting to explain "how to navigate the data to make effective comments." "We believe this project has been thoroughly reviewed," Oviatt later told the Bakersfield Californian.
See also
- Rancho CastacRancho CastacThis is an article about a former California rancho. For a community of a similar name in the same general area, see Castaic, California.Rancho Castac or Rancho Castec was a Mexican land grant in present-day Kern and Los Angeles counties, California, made by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Jose...
, a Mexican land grant in the area - Mountain Communities of the Tejon PassMountain Communities of the Tejon PassThe Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass, or the Frazier Mountain Communities, in the San Emigdio Mountains is a region of California that includes Lebec, Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods, Lockwood Valley, Pinon Pines, and Pine Mountain Club, in Kern County, California, and Gorman in Los Angeles...
External links
- Official site of Tejon Mountain Village
- Tribe Challenges Tejon Ranch Corporation Development, on Youtube.com.
- "Save Tejon Ranch: Bulldozers, Smog, and Gridlock," a page critical of the project
- Are the groups suing over TMV credible? Brian Bierman writes that he "will take nothing they say at face value."
- The Chilton Ranch in Arizona defends itself against attacks by the Center for Biological Diversity.
- Tejon Ranch: The Myth of the Unbuildable Land
- Wishtoyo Foundation
- Kawaiisu Tribe of the Tejon Indian Reservation Home Page