Tejon Ranch Company and Three Leading Community Builders Formalize Partnership and Future Plans

Initial planning documents filed with county for masterplanned community
on the Tejon Ranch

LOS ANGELES - Tejon Ranch Company, Pardee Homes, Lewis Investment Company and Standard Pacific Homes today finalized a joint-venture partnership called Centennial Founders. The previously announced partnership was amended to reflect initial plans filed today with Los Angeles County for Centennial, a proposed new community 60 miles north of Los Angeles on the Kern County border near the junction of Interstate 5 and Highway 138. The partnership agreement, previously announced in March 2000, originally called for a 4,000-acre housing development. It has been amended to accommodate a masterplanned community that will bring needed housing, jobs and services to this area. Centennial encompasses 11,700 acres, nearly half of which will be preserved as permanent open space. "As we studied the county's housing needs and began a dialogue with residents and businesses in the area, we realized that there was a greater purpose for the site. This is not a proposal to build another large subdivision. Rather, it represents a long-term commitment to build a new town, a new community that combines the best of yesteryear with today's cutting edge technologies, environmental protections and civic activities to create a new model for community building," said Bob Stine, CEO, Tejon Ranch. He noted the partners will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to plan and build all the elements of the integrated community including schools, roads, parks, and other amenities. "We are at the beginning of a two or three year process to refine plans for this new kind of town, " added Stine. "Our next steps, of course, include continuing our dialogue with residents already living in the area. Plus, we've assembled a group of advisors to guide our planning in areas like environmental stewardship, lifelong learning, healthcare and job creation." Development at Centennial will be confined to 6,000 acres of relatively flat land used for grazing by Tejon Ranch over the past 100 years. About half of the site, 5,700 acres, will be set aside as permanent open space. Eighty percent of this will remain as it looks today while the remainder will be woven throughout the community in parks, bikeways, trails and recreation areas. Balancing Homes and Jobs Phased over 25 years, the community will incorporate a business district, schools, libraries, retail and entertainment centers, medical facilities and other commercial venues that will create 30,000 jobs. Centennial at full build-out will include 23,000 homes in multiple villages with parks, recreation facilities and local services. "Centennial is being designed as a balanced community. It will put homes close to jobs, shopping, recreation, schools and medical services," according to Greg Medeiros, Centennial Founders vice president of community development. Further, Centennial planning will respect the natural environment and be based on sustainable design principles and careful resource management, he said. The new community will offer housing priced to fit the budgets of teachers, firefighters, seniors and young families as well as a lifestyle built around small town living, Medeiros adds. He cited preliminary home prices, in today's dollars, starting under $200,000 for a townhome or condominium and starting in the mid-$200,000s for a single family detached home. First home occupancies are estimated for 2007. The adjacent transportation corridor has the capacity for additional vehicles but, when built out, local jobs within Centennial will reduce the need for a large proportion of residents to commute outside the area. Medeiros also notes that "Centennial's design will include shopping, dining, medical and other services within the town, so existing residents of nearby communities who now must commute into Bakersfield or Santa Clarita to visit a large super market or medical specialists will no longer have to drive outside the area to find these services." Filing with the county is just the first step in a comprehensive planning, environmental, government and public review process, Medeiros reports. He cited extensive pre-filing environmental, traffic, water and related studies as confirming this site as an excellent location to build a new community. Further studies and comprehensive analyses will be conducted as part of the environmental impact report, which is the next step in the planning process.

Seeking Advisors To ensure that the new community is a shared vision, Centennial has embarked on a broad outreach program to solicit input for the planning process. It has sought advice from community and business leaders on housing, education, transportation, healthcare, employment and other issues and has engaged planning, biology, environmental, smart growth and related experts to advise on best practices. Centennial also has opened a dialogue with the environmental community for input on the proposal. Meetings with residents of nearby communities have begun and will continue through the entitlement process. "We envision Centennial as a new hometown where generations of families will put down roots and enjoy life through all its stages so we want to take the time to do it right," Medeiros concludes.