Environmental Groups Propose Solution To Tejon Ranch Development

Environmentalists offered to withdraw opposition to development of the sprawling Tejon Ranch if the builder agrees to set aside about 380 square miles in the Tehachapi Mountains as wilderness. The offer was designed to persuade developers to scale back plans on the 270,000-acre site some 60 miles north of Los Angeles and to more than double the amount of land to be preserved. The offer was dismissed by Tejon Ranch Co. officials as unreasonable, but the developer left open the possibility of more discussions with the coalitions of environmentalists. In May 2005, Tejon Ranch Co. and a national land trust hailed an agreement to sell more than one-third of the ranch for use as a nature preserve. But that plan failed to satisfy the Tejon Natural Heritage Park Committee, a coalition of 12 conservation groups. Larry talks with Barry Zoeller, Vice President of Corporate Communications for the Tejon Ranch Company, and John Musick, attorney and volunteer advisor to the Tejon Natural Heritage Park Committee about the newly proposed plan and the possibility of a compromise solution that would satisfy all parties involved.

Environmentalists offered to withdraw opposition to development of the sprawling Tejon Ranch if the builder agrees to set aside about 380 square miles in the Tehachapi Mountains as wilderness. The offer was designed to persuade developers to scale back plans on the 270,000-acre site some 60 miles north of Los Angeles and to more than double the amount of land to be preserved. The offer was dismissed by Tejon Ranch Co. officials as unreasonable, but the developer left open the possibility of more discussions with the coalitions of environmentalists. In May 2005, Tejon Ranch Co. and a national land trust hailed an agreement to sell more than one-third of the ranch for use as a nature preserve. But that plan failed to satisfy the Tejon Natural Heritage Park Committee, a coalition of 12 conservation groups. Larry talks with Barry Zoeller, Vice President of Corporate Communications for the Tejon Ranch Company, and John Musick, attorney and volunteer advisor to the Tejon Natural Heritage Park Committee about the newly proposed plan and the possibility of a compromise solution that would satisfy all parties involved.