Environmentalists offer deal to Tejon developers

GORMAN - 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 - 245,000 acres.

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.

Eight months earlier, 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 failed to satisfy the Tejon Natural Heritage Park Committee, a coalition of 12 conservation groups.

Committee spokesman Dan York said the coalition proposal would help protect the patchwork of ecological systems and endangered species worthy of state or national park status.

Tejon Ranch Co. plans to build three large urban centers on the property.

a 23,253-acre resort with up to seven spas and boutique hotels, 160,000 square feet of commercial space and up to 3,450 homes. The two other projects would be built near Interstate 5 - Centennial, a city of 23,000 homes along the southern flanks of the Tehachapis, and Tejon Industrial Park on the northern flank of the mountain range.

Tejon Ranch President Robert A. Stine objected to reconfiguring development to fit the aspirations of environmentalists who, he said, are stirring up controversy to "increase their donations."

"Our board of directors has authorized up to 100,000 acres for a nature preserve," Stine said. "These environmentalists want more. But it's not their land. They don't own it. It belongs to our shareholders."