PUBLISHED 5/18/08 ----

Applaud the Tejon Ranch agreement for its promise — to preserve about 90 percent of the largest private landholding in California and  the largest private parcel of wilderness land in Southern California.

Applaud the company for its forward thinking — protecting the habitat of endangered species and the public’s access to what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described as a “vast California treasure.”

Applaud for the landowner’s enlightened approach to negotiating with citizens and environmental groups — crafting an agreement that will allow Tejon to build homes and businesses on the remaining  10 percent of the ranch.

In return for those concessions, Tejon has received assurances from several major environmental groups that they will not oppose development plans.

That does not mean Tejon will get a “free ride” with these development plans. Many hurdles remain for the company to obtain local, state and federal approval for its Mountain Village housing and commercial project along I-5 and the expansion of its industrial project, which already includes the IKEA distribution warehouse in Kern County. Approval also will be needed for its 23,000-home Centennial planned community in northern Los Angeles County.

Elected and appointed officials in Kern and Los Angeles counties will take the lead on these projects — protecting taxpayers’ interests and helping shape the projects to enhance and protect the region’s resources and quality of life. Tejon officials have promised to consult the company’s environmental partners as they proceed with development plans. There also will be plenty of opportunities for the public to express concerns.

Tejon officials could have taken a different approach to moving forward with its development plans. Facing threatened opposition from environmental groups, they could have pumped up their chests, flexed their “private property rights” muscles and engaged in political and judicial warfare.

Too often we have seen this approach, even in Bakersfield’s own backyard, leaving the landowner and public losers.

Instead, Tejon officials reached out to environmental groups, seeking to craft a project that would achieve a range of goals — protecting species, wilderness land and the environment; clearing the path for limited development; and creating what Joel Reynolds, an attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, called “one of the great conservation achievements in California history.”

“Owning so much land, there’s certainly a duty,” Robert A. Stine, president and chief executive of Tejon Ranch Co., told The Californian. “To whom much is given, much is expected. Where does development go? How do we take care of what nature has provided? That’s what we’ve tried to do — keep a balance, while moving forward for our shareholders.”

In a nutshell, Tejon has agreed to set aside 178,000 acres, providing an option for public purchase of 62,000 additional acres — 49,000 to create a state park, 10,000 to realign a segment of the Pacific Crest Trail and the rest to provide tours of sensitive habitat. Funding for land acquisition and maintenance must still be acquired.

Tejon officials also agreed to set back building in its Mountain Village from several sensitive cliffs to protect the endangered condors.

“When forward-thinking people are willing to sit down and make something positive happen, those old battle lines can be terminated,” Schwarzenegger noted at a press conference announcing the agreement.

The promise of this agreement is great. Californians should hope for its success.
Tejon’s enlightened approach should serve as a model for all  landowners who must clear environmental hurdles and other public concerns in order to develop projects.