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Key County Panel Rejects Tejon's Enormous Centennial Project |
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, Sep. 10 -/E-Wire/-- An important Los Angeles County science advisory committee refused Monday to approve a proposed megadevelopment on the Tejon Ranch wilderness in the northern portion of the County. The 23,000-home Centennial development, which would include strip malls and other commercial parcels, would harm two Significant Ecological Areas designated by the County. The development also would displace the last herd of pronghorn antelope in Los Angeles County and destroy the beloved wildflower fields around the Gorman area.
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“The Technical Advisory Committee members are safeguarding Los Angeles County’s world-class wild heritage,” said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, referring to the Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee, or SEATAC. “They recognize the biological significance of the Tejon Ranch and could see no justification for why a new city should be built there. The last wild area of Los Angeles County needs to remain wild.”
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The Centennial project, the largest housing development ever proposed in California, would be an enormous new city isolated from existing metropolitan centers, workplaces, and infrastructure. It would be an example of “leap-frog,” sprawl development that would require extensive commuting to jobs and services, which will increase traffic on the Interstate 5 corridor and further foul the air in an area that already is notorious for poor air quality.
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In the 1970s, the County’s General Plan designated Significant Ecological Areas, or SEAs, based on the unique biological and ecological resources. Plans for proposed developments in these SEAs must undergo heightened review by SEATAC, a panel composed of scientists, in order to assure maintaining the integrity of the SEAs. Representatives of the Centennial made an unprecedented four visits to the SEATAC, and each time the developers failed to make adequate changes to the project that would retain the area’s ecological significance.
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“It is no surprise that a proposal to bulldoze 8,300 acres of open space that cannot be replaced causes so much concern,” Anderson said. “Even in these tough economic times, Centennial developers were unwilling to compromise their development plans to protect the quality of life in Los Angeles County by conserving irreplaceable wildlife habitat.”
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The Centennial project will now be considered by the Los Angeles County Planning Commission — without SEATAC’s approval
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For more information on Centennial and other Tejon developments please go to www.savetejonranch.org.
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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national nonprofit conservation organization with more than 180,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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Contact Info: Ileene Anderson, Center for Biological Diversity, (323) 654-5943 Website : Center for Biological Diversity
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/SOURCE:
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Center for Biological Diversity |
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09-10-2008 |
/CONTACT:
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Ileene Anderson, Center for Biological Diversity, (323) 654-5943 |
| /WEB SITE: |
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
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