Tejon Ranch Co. will see its long-stalled 6,700-acre Centennial master-planned project near Gorman go forward after the company made an agreement with environmental nonprofit Climate Resolve to drop its lawsuit.
In exchange, Tejon Ranch Co. will construct a net-zero emissions community of 19,333 homes with an emphasis on sustainability and wildfire safety.
The expansive Centennial project — to be built in the western part of Antelope Valley at the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains — had been certified two years ago by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. However, in April, Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rejected the county’s approval of Tejon Ranch’s environmental impact report on account of concern regarding wildfire risk and the impact of greenhouse gases generated by vehicles.
On Wednesday, an agreement was reached in which Climate Resolve agreed to dismiss its legal claim that L.A. County violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved Centennial in 2019.
Under the new agreement, Tejon Ranch will install nearly 30,000 electric vehicle chargers within and outside the community.
The new plan will also include incentives to support the purchase of 10,500 electric vehicles, including trucks and school buses.
There will also be funding for on-site and off-site fire protection and prevention measures, including fire-resilient design and planning, and vegetation management strategies.
Shares of Tejon Ranch (TRC) closed at $18.38, up 43 cents or 2.40 percent on Thursday, a day when the Dow was up 1.8 percent.