19,000 Homes on the Edge of L.A. County Granted Initial Planning Approval

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission recommended approval of the proposed Centennial development, which would build 19,000 homes on Tejon Ranch at the northern edge of the county.

"The Regional Planning Commission voted 4 to 1 to recommend that the county Board of Supervisors certify the project’s environmental impact report and approve associated land-use plans and permits, subject to some additional conditions," reports Nina Agrawal.

The project still has to go before the county Board of Supervisors for approval.

Agrawal wrote in feature-length detail about the project earlier this month, prior to the planning commission's hearing. That article places Centennial in context of the region's long history of master planned communities—from Leimert Park to Irvine to Valencia. "But discussion around such developments has shifted over the years, as Los Angeles and much of the country reconsider urban life and as the imperatives to address climate change, an affordable housing crisis and ever-worsening traffic grow more urgent," writes Agrawal.

While the project's developers say the project is needed to provide new, more affordable housing options to the region, others question about the lengths residents will forced to drive to find work. "Environmental advocates also point out that the project’s location — far from the urban centers of Los Angeles, Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley — and the infeasibility of extending rail service to Centennial will increase the miles people drive, producing more greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and traffic," according to Agrawal.