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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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Navy Monitors Town Site At Aviation Crossroads

Navy officials from San Diego have been watching with interest as a large Central Valley landowner makes plans to continue Los Angeles’ sprawl to the north.

Tejon Ranch, along Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, plans three developments, including a town called Centennial. The Pentagon is concerned because the developments sit under certain flight paths between California military bases.

Rear Adm. Jose Betancourt Jr., commander of the Navy’s Southwest region in Downtown San Diego and the Pentagon’s regional environmental coordinator, expressed concerns about the development in an October 2003 letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then came a year of meetings between Navy officials and representatives of the landowner, the Tejon Ranch Co.

In October 2004, Betancourt wrote Bob Stine, Tejon’s chief executive, saying the flight paths and development could coexist, and that flight paths could be “shaped.”

Betancourt cautioned, however, that the military will continue to evaluate Tejon Ranch as plans are developed in more detail, and that military needs may change unexpectedly.

The area is at a crossroads between Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Navy facilities in El Centro, Lemoore, Point Mugu and China Lake, and Edwards Air Force Base.

The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits flights lower than 1,000 feet over cities. A Navy spokeswoman confirmed military pilots train at altitudes as low as 200 feet.

Centennial will be 60 miles north of Los Angeles, near the border of Los Angeles and Kern counties. The developer plans 23,000 homes, plus commercial development, which could begin as soon as 2007.

The

Los Angeles Times

calls Centennial “the largest housing development in Los Angeles County history.”

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