Environmentalists drop suit against Centennial at Tejon Ranch

Reproductions of the Centennial at Tejon Ranch Project (Centennial at Tejon Ranch)

The developers behind Centennial at the Tejon Ranch project have cleared a major legal hurdle on the proposed 6,700-acre project.

The nonprofit group Climate Resolve has agreed to drop a lawsuit that has effectively blocked the project since Los Angeles County approved it in 2019, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Climate Resolve registered support for the project after developer Tejon Ranch Co. included green energy and fire protection and preventive measures for that portion of the land on a northern outskirts of LA County.

Tejon Ranch committed to “net zero [greenhouse gas] emissions by reducing all emissions to zero through significant on-site and off-site commitments, ”according to a press release.

The developer said it would install about 30,000 electric vehicle chargers around the 19,300 domestic community and “provide incentives to support the purchase of 10,500 electric vehicles.”

Finally, Tejon Ranch will fund “on-site and off-site fire protection and prevention measures, including fire-resistant design, planning and vegetation management for the benefit of neighboring communities.”

In return, Climate Resolve will drop its 2019 lawsuit against LA County to approve the project. The organization claimed that the county failed to take into account risks of wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement still needs to be approved by Judge Mitchel Beckloff of the LA Superior Court, who heard the case.

Beckloff separately filed 20 other claims filed against Tejon Ranch Co. by Climate Resolve, Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society. The judge mentioned risks to wildfires that the project could pose to neighboring areas as its initial environmental impact report was inadequate. This objection has yet to be settled to the satisfaction of the court.

The Centennial at Tejon Ranch project has been underway for two decades and has met with constant resistance over the years, mostly from environmental groups.

The project has faced more than a dozen other lawsuits over the years. Tejon Ranch Co. in 2008 resolved a number of these actions when it agreed to preserve 240,000 acres of the Tejon Ranch property.

[Yahoo! Finance] – Dennis Lynch