LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve the Centennial project at Tejon Ranch, clearing the way for a hotly debated master-planned community in a private wilderness area at the county's edge.
"This is not just another sprawl project," said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the district where Centennial will be located.
She described it instead as "a forward-looking way of governance."
Barger said the development will help address California's housing crunch, bring economic opportunities to the area and go "above and beyond" existing environmental requirements.
The vote was 4-1, with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl casting the dissenting vote.
"I can't support it. I think it is not a good idea to build a brand-new city so far away from everything else _ because of the fire concern, because I don't quite understand and believe the affordable housing promises" and because of the environmental impacts, she said.
The Centennial development has pitted environmental groups, which argue it will destroy an important natural habitat and worsen greenhouse gas emissions as residents commute by car to faraway cities, against a private landowner and some local residents who say it will bring badly needed housing and services to the region.
The vote on the project also comes on the heels of catastrophic wildfires that tore through Malibu and the Northern California community of Paradise, raising questions about whether homes in the state should continue to be built in fire-prone areas near wildland.
All of the Centennial project site would sit within "high" and "very high" fire hazard severity zones as identified by state fire officials.
Some urban planners, land-use experts and ecologists have said that fact alone should compel local officials to re-evaluate the project and their priorities, but the Tejon Ranch Co. and county planning staff have said fire risk at the site can be reduced through safer building standards and good overall planning.
"I remain deeply concerned about all communities located in high fire hazard severity zones and stand ready to act as swiftly as we can to ensure protection of life and structures," Barger said.
But, she said, houses at Centennial will be built with flame-resistant materials and surrounded by appropriate "fuel modification" zones.
"These will not be 50- to 60-year-old wooden buildings with shake roofs within close proximity of ... pine trees found on hillsides and canyons," she said.
The project will eventually bring more than 19,000 homes to a mostly uninhabited area about 70 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The Centennial site is mostly flat grassland, though it also encompasses oak woodlands and some steep terrain. The 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch traverses a variety of ecosystems, including desert and mountain landscapes with Joshua trees, pine forests and wildflower fields that are home to California condors, mountain lions, black bears and elk.
The Regional Planning Commission voted 4-1 in August to recommend that the Board of Supervisors certify the project's environmental impact report and sign off on the associated land-use plans and permits, with additional conditions that the developer set aside 15 percent of the units for affordable housing and commit to 30 percent local hiring for construction.
The commission left it up to the board to decide some thornier issues, including how open space on the ranch should be managed, whether the development should include supportive housing for the homeless, and what level of medical care should be available on site.
The board accepted the planning department's recommendations on those three items.
