HYUNDAI TO BUILD CALIFORNIA CITY TRACK.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer CALIFORNIA CITY - Two related projects will reach major milestones next month when Hyundai breaks ground on a $50 million test track and officials vote on a radical shift of California City's boundaries. Hyundai Motor Company The Hyundai Motor Company, a division of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, is South Korea's largest and the world's sixth largest Automaker.[1] Its headquarters are in Seoul, South Korea. is scheduled to break ground Feb. 11 on a 4,300-acre test facility that will be built between the current California City boundaries and Highway 58. The proving ground will be staffed and run by Hyundai Motor Company subsidiary Hyundai America Technical Center Inc., which is responsible for the technical development of Hyundai and Kia cars and trucks in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . ``The United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. offers many appealing opportunities for Hyundai Motor Company, and we continue to invest to ensure our future here,'' said Young Woo Kim, senior executive vice president, Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. ``The proving ground is an example of our commitment to developing vehicles that meet the unique demands of the American driver.'' Also in February, Kern County's Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO LAFCO Local Agency Formation Commission LAFCO Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative , will vote on a California City plan to annex 29 square miles of developable land, including the Hyundai/Kia Providing Ground location, and drop a similar amount of city territory elsewhere that is problematic for development because it is habitat for the protected desert tortoise desert tortoise see gopherus agassizii. and the Mohave ground squirrel The Mohave Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus mohavensis, is a species of ground squirrel found only in the western Mojave Desert, California. It is listed as an endangered species in California, but not in the United States. The IUCN lists this species as vulnerable. . The 29 square miles proposed for annexation are at the southwest corner of the city. Officials plan to drop 29 square miles of uninhabited desert at the city's northern and eastern edges. The new boundaries would go to the LAFCO board for approval Feb. 25, said City Manager Jack Stewart Jack Stewart is a name shared by several people:
Last year, the Kern County Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. voted to authorize California City to include in its redevelopment agency the 29 square miles it plans to annex. The proving ground will be used to test next-generation vehicles from Hyundai and Kia. The company recently opened a $24 million Hyundai/Kia Design Center in Irvine, and plans to build in Montgomery, Ala., an assembly plant employing about 2,000 workers and capable of turning out 300,000 vehicles a year, half of U.S. Hyundai and KIA sales in 2001. The California City project will include a 6.4-mile oval track, a vehicle-handling course inside the oval track, a paved hill road, and several special surface roads. A 30,000-square-foot complex for offices and indoor testing will also be constructed. The proving grounds, expected to employ about 40 people, should be completed in 2004. California City officials have acknowledged for several months that they were working to bring Hyundai to the high desert. Hyundai, however, would only say that it was interested in the California City site, and did not confirm its intentions to build the proving grounds until this month. |
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