Mountain Communities Town Council: Centennial Discussed

Reprinted with permission from The Mountain Enterprise
Friday, November 10, 2006

Steve McChesney, volunteer coordinator of the Southern Kern Search and Rescue Team, enjoyed having his facts served with well-prepared tri-tip Saturday, Nov. 4. The event was a barbecue hosted by “Centennial Planners,” consultants employed by Tejon Ranch Company and Pardee Homes, partners in the 23,000-home development planned near Quail Lake off Highway 138.

McChesney picked up the microphone during the event at the Tejon Ranch equestrian center to tell his Mountain Communities neighbors—from Neenach through Lebec, Cuddy Valley, Lake of the Woods, Pinon Pines, Frazier Park, and Pine Mountain—that “I am impressed by the quality of people here and their depth of experience. As builders and developers, these seem to me like good people.”

The interior of the massive Tejon Ranch equestrian center training barn was used to create a cyclorama of informational displays and visitors were encouraged to chat with project consultants, specialists in various areas of problem-solving for the development.

McChesney said in a telophone interview that he is concerned about the Interstate 5 congestion already evident, years before Centennial has even started to build: “I would like to see rail through here [the Grapevine],” he said. “There was one exhibit that seemed to show that and we were a little excited about that, but they said, ‘no,’ that wasn’t part of the plan.”

Terry Austin of Austin-Foust is a Centennial transportation consultant. He was asked about that question.

He pointed to the land use maps of the Centennial project, to several sectors use maps of the Centennial project, to several sectors labeled “TC.”

“These are transportation centers,” he said, explaining that carpool lanes are being built in the Newhall pass area, widening the I-5, and that the “TC” areas are parking lots where residents can come to take a shuttle bus to the Santa Clarita Metrolink station, or to catch their car pool ride.

The greater answer to the question, Greg Medeiros, Vice President for Community Development of Centennial Founders, said, is that the business industrial park areas of the phased Centennial plan are being developed first.

“We anticipate the jobs here will start even before housing is in,” Consultant Randal Jackson of The Planning Center based in Costa Mesa said, pointing to what he called “the Princess Lines model in Newhall,” which brought 5,000, jobs to that area. “We will have more jobs than houses when we’re finished,” he said, adding, “it will be a reverse commute situation.”

In the area of resource consumption, consultants said that photovoltaic roof tiling will be an option available on many of the homes.

Jackson said planning is in place to make bicycle and walking trails a priority.

Ross Barker discussed water use planning. He pointed to illustrations of aquifer recharge ponds adjacent to the California aqueduct.

“During high snow melt seasons, when there is excess volume of water flowing through the aqueduct, we will ‘bank’ water to recharge the aquifer,” Barker said. He and Medeiros said they anticipate they will be able to bank “three years worth of water” in this manner. There will also be extensive recycling and purification of water for landscape maintenance, and use of drought-tolerant foliage in the design. Still, there are at least two golf courses prominently displayed on the current plans.