Tejon Ranch Co. to Evaluate All Options to Proceed With the Eventual Development of Centennial at Tejon Ranch Following Court Ruling
27 Março 2023 - 6:56PM
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff has ordered Los
Angeles County to rescind the Centennial project’s 2019 approvals
pending correction of a small number of inadequacies the Court
identified in the project’s original environmental impact report.
The ruling comes after nearly four years of litigation over the
County’s approval of Centennial.
Tejon Ranch Co. is considering options to reinstate project
approvals, such as working with Los Angeles County to complete the
additional environmental analysis required by the Court’s
ruling.
“While we are disappointed in the Court’s ruling, we remain
committed to Centennial’s ultimate development,” said Hugh F.
McMahon, Tejon Ranch Co.’s executive vice president of real estate.
“Tejon Ranch has a legacy of environmental stewardship, as well as
using its land to meet major needs in California. More than ever,
the state desperately needs the 19,333 housing units Centennial
will provide, including the nearly 3,500 affordable units.”
The community of more than 19,300 homes, including 3,480
affordable housing units, and 10.1 million square feet of
commercial and industrial space, is planned for an area of
northwest Los Angeles County identified in the Antelope Valley
Areawide Plan (AVAP) as an Economic Opportunity Area with
appropriate zoning and land use designations allowing for
residential and commercial real estate development. One of the
litigants in the Centennial case, the Center for Biological
Diversity (CBD), unsuccessfully fought to overturn Los Angeles
County’s approval of the AVAP, with its legal challenge being
denied by both the Superior and Appellate Court
Background
The May 2019 final approval of Centennial by the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors was the subject of two separate legal
challenges filed under the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA).
In the first legal challenge, all claimed deficiencies in the
lawsuit collectively argued by CBD and the California Native Plant
Society (CNPS) were rejected as having no legal merit in the
Court’s April 2021 ruling. More than a dozen claims in a second,
separate lawsuit brought by the environmental organization Climate
Resolve (CR), were also rejected by Judge Beckloff in April 2021,
including various claims that the EIR did not sufficiently analyze
project greenhouse gas impacts. The Court also ruled that the
County had appropriately analyzed project wildfire impacts such as
fire safety design mandates and fire response measures. However,
the Court did agree with two of Climate Resolve’s minor arguments:
the County's description of the state's cap-and-trade regulatory
program was not clear, and the County should have analyzed the risk
of offsite fire ignitions separately from the County's otherwise
adequate evaluation and mitigation of wildfire risks.
The CR lawsuit was later dismissed with prejudice in December of
2021, following a settlement agreement between Tejon Ranch and CR.
The settlement resulted in the Centennial project further reducing
its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to become a "Net Zero GHG”
community. The settlement also established an unprecedented
community fire safety grant program to assist nearby communities in
fire prevention and management. The agreement sets a new standard
for environmental sustainability in a residential community and
establishes a new higher standard for a Net Zero GHG community.
Although CBD/CNPS did not prevail in any of their arguments
against the project, Judge Beckloff later decided in February 2022
to grant CBD prevailing party status on the two claims on which
Climate Resolved prevailed. The Company now has the option of
appealing the Court’s February 2022 decision, in addition to
appealing the Court’s March 24, 2023 judgment.
Ruling
The Court’s judgment requires the County to rescind all County
approvals for the Centennial project pending further CEQA
compliance, which may include further environmental analysis of the
project’s GHG and offsite fire risk impacts. Any further
environmental review of the Centennial project would assume
implementation of the CR settlement terms – net zero GHG and
funding for community wildfire protection measures – which already
address the two deficiencies identified by the Court.
The Centennial/Climate Resolve Settlement Agreement includes the
following measures and features, which will be considered part of
the Centennial project:
- Net Zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG)Emissions: The community
commits to net zero GHG emissions by reducing to zero all emissions
through significant on-site and off-site commitments. A large
component prioritizes disadvantaged communities, followed by other
projects within Los Angeles County, and other parts of southern and
central California.
- Electric Vehicle Advancement: Advance the EV future
through commitments to install almost 30,000 chargers within and
outside the community. Provide incentives to support the purchase
of 10,500 electric vehicles.
- Elimination of natural gas for residential use and most
commercial uses at Centennial.
- Wildfire Prevention: Funding for on-site and off-site fire
protection and prevention measures, including fire-resilient
design, planning, and vegetation management with benefits to
neighboring communities.
- Unrivaled Transparency: Provide annual public reports and
create an independent non-profit established to monitor compliance
and implementation of the agreement which is empowered to enforce
compliance and require arbitration in the case of disputes.
CONTACT:
Barry Zoeller, Senior VP of Corporate Communications &
Investor Relations
bzoeller@tejonranch.com (661) 663-4212
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements,
including without limitation statements regarding our commitments
under the Settlement Agreement and certain aspects of our real
estate operations. In some cases, these statements are identifiable
through use of words such as “commit” and “will.” These
forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future
performance, are subject to assumptions and involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could
cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the
Company to differ materially from any future results, performance,
or achievement implied by such forward-looking statements. These
risks, uncertainties and important factors include, but are not
limited to, the impacts of COVID-19 and the actions taken by
governments, businesses, and individuals in response to it, success
in obtaining various governmental approvals and entitlements for
land development activities, and the risks described in the section
entitled “Risk Factors” in our annual and quarterly reports filed
with the SEC.
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