DAWN OF A SUPERCITY TEJON RANCH PLAN ENVISIONS 23,000 HOMES.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

GORMAN - Plans for a veritable city of 23,000 homes on a sprawling cattle ranch at the top of the Grapevine have left Los Angeles County officials with a lot of questions.

Where will the water come from?

Will so many people living near Interstate 5 some 60 miles north of Los Angeles cause gridlocked traffic into the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys?

How will developers fulfill their promise to attract 30,000 jobs to the ``new community'' of Centennial?

``I'm not aware of any project in the past that's been as large as this application,'' said Frank Meneses, head of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department's zoning permits section.

``Newhall Ranch is one of the largest I've ever seen. This one is larger. This is the largest I've ever seen.''

At Los Angeles County's far northwestern edge, Tejon Ranch Co. and three developers have proposed a project they say in 25 years could be half the size of present-day Lancaster's 123,000 population.

Following up an announcement three years ago about plans to develop the area, Tejon Ranch, Pardee Homes, Lewis Investment Co. and Standard Pacific Homes filed an application last month with the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.

Officials have already asked for more information: About water; about where the promised jobs will come from; about the schedule for building schools, police and fire stations; and about effects on two ``significant ecological areas'' that cross the borders.

The developers will be required to complete a full environmental impact report, officials said.

``It will be quite some time before this sees any public hearings,'' Meneses said.

Proposed to have up to 23,000 homes, plus schools, shopping centers and other businesses grouped in multiple ``villages,'' Centennial would be located a mile east of Interstate 5 and mostly north of Highway 138, between the tiny communities of Neenach and Gorman, officials said.

The proposal already is drawing mixed reaction among the 2,000-or-so retirees, farmers, engineers, attorneys and desert rats who occupy the homesteads and custom ranch homes scattered on Tejon Ranch's eastern fringe.

Some fear it will destroy the quiet and the views they moved to the middle of nowhere for, or will eventually shove out residents who raise horses and other animals.

``People don't realize this is the last open space in L.A. County,'' said Mary Nowak, who for 15 years has raised horses on 40 acres while her husband commuted to a job with Litton Industries in the San Fernando Valley.

In rainy springs, California poppies form an orange blanket over the hills visible from her kitchen window, she said.

``After they build tract homes in there, there's not going to be any more wildflowers. Maybe if a seed came up in the cracks of the sidewalk you'd see a poppy.''

But other neighbors scoff at opponents' fears.

``My assessment is that Tejon Ranch has been an extremely good steward of the land and I don't believe they would destroy it,'' said John Gaglione, a software consultant who raises South African Boer goats and keeps horses and mules on 5 1/2 acres east of Tejon Ranch.

Centennial's presence would finally provide the area with the public services that residents pay taxes for - like libraries and parks - but are miles away, he added.

And Gaglione says it is not right for opponents to expect that Tejon Ranch should be forbidden to develop its land.

``I think that would be un-American,'' Gaglione said.

Centennial's developers say the spot they picked is perfect: It's next to two highways, relatively flat and large enough to accommodate an independent community.

``We consider it about the ideal spot,'' said Greg Medeiros, Centennial Founders vice president of community development.

The development is proposed to take in about 11,700 acres, or 20 square miles, but about half the acreage - now grassy, rolling hills with scattered oaks, cottonwoods and willows - would be left as open space, the developers said.

The original announcement in July 1999 said the development would cover 4,000 acres.

About 60 miles north of Los Angeles and 40 miles south of Bakersfield, Centennial's homes are projected to cost $200,000 in today's dollars for a town house or condominium, and starting in the mid-$200,000s for a house.

Businesses would cover 300 acres, the builders say, and they promise to build two fire stations, a sheriff's substation, two sewage treatment plants, 11 elementary schools and two high schools.

Drinking water would be provided through a combination of wells and the California Aqueduct, which crosses the property. Treated wastewater would irrigate golf courses, parks and more than 300 acres of ``greenways.''

The developers hope to have the first homes ready in 2007. They say they hope to attract biomedical businesses, the movie industry, and research and development firms to employ residents.

Tejon Ranch owns more than 270,000 acres - about the size of Los Angeles and the biggest single piece of land in California - on the border of Los Angeles and Kern counties.

Two years ago, it announced it was selling its 150-year-old cattle ranching business in a landmark shift toward real-estate development.

The first project is a 350-acre industrial and distribution center complex beside Interstate 5 at the foot of the Grapevine.

While the area may look untouched, the developers said, most of the land is covered with foreign grasses that pushed out native plants.

After 150 years of cattle grazing, it has no protected species like the San Fernando Valley spineflower or Los Angeles sunflower found on the sites of the Ahmanson Ranch and Newhall Ranch projects, the developers said. They hired a private firm to do an extensive search to make sure.

Environmentalists are watching the project because of its size, its location on a giant, essentially untouched piece of real estate, and its distance from cities.

``We don't need any more people in cars,'' said Bill Corcoran of the Sierra Club.

But the developers say Southern California is in a housing crisis, illustrated by home prices that hit a record median of $325,000 in July in the San Fernando Valley.

Not enough homes are being built to match increases in population and jobs, they say.

Centennial officials quote a Southern California Association of Governments study that says north Los Angeles County - essentially the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys - needs 93,000 more homes by 2010 to accommodate 283,000 new residents.

Even building the 21,000-home Newhall Ranch project outside Valencia, the North Lake project near Castaic, and Palmdale's City Ranch and Ritter Ranch projects by 2010 will account for only 40 percent of the housing need, they say.

Urban planning expert Bill Fulton believes the recent influx of businesses into Santa Clarita is an encouragement to the Tejon development. Newhall Land and Farming Company's industrial and commercial centers 32 miles down Interstate 5 have added 5,000 jobs in just five years.

``This is about the fact there is land within commuting distance along a freeway that's got capacity,'' Fulton said.

Interstate 5 from Valencia southward is a commuters' nightmare, but traffic north of there is only one-third as much: 60,000 cars and trucks a day south of Highway 138, compared with 178,000 south of McBean Parkway, Caltrans says.

While Tejon Ranch officials have not said what they plan to do with the rest of their vast holdings, Fulton compares its prospects with those 40 years ago of Irvine Ranch. In the 1960s, the Irvine Co. began transforming 93,000 acres of pasture and cropland into homes for 200,000 people.

``Tejon is probably the Irvine of the 21st century,'' Fulton said.

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Map:

Proposed Tejon Ranch 4,000-acre, 23,000-home community