The Tehachapi City Council will consider a proposed annexation and a number of matters related to real estate and development at its meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Typically, the council meets on the first and third Mondays of each month. However, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the Monday meeting was moved to Tuesday. It will be held in the Community Room at the Tehachapi Police Department, 220 W. C St.
Among items on the agenda are:
• A public hearing on the Red Apple Tract addendum to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report and the related second reading and adoption of an ordinance to allow annexation of a 10.7 acre property at the northwest corner of Tucker and Red Apple roads. The property has been owned by the Burgeis family since the 1950s. The Tehachapi Planning Commission recommended the annexation at its meeting last November. The property is proposed to be pre-zoned as commercial, although there are no immediate plans for its development.
• A second reading and consider adoption of an ordinance amending sections of the city’s codes to be in line with state and county code changes.
• Consider adopting a resolution setting fees for planning, engineering and building services based upon a recent study. Some fees are proposed to increase, some to stay the same and others to decrease.
• Consideration of a request from Saticoy Development Company, LLC, to extend the entitlement for Tentative Tract Map 6714 by six months. The Tentative Tract Map was first approved in 2008 for a 74-lot single family neighborhood located west and adjacent to Cherry Lane Estates. The property is bounded on the north by Cherry Lane and on the south by Pinon Street. Multiple extensions were granted by the city and due to changes in state law and the property changed hands.
The current owner has requested an extension to allow it more time to comply with requirements of Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District related to a flowage easement on the west side of the property. The subdivision was among those identified by the water district as examples of what it claimed as a “pattern and practice” of violations of the California Environmental Quality Act by the city in a lawsuit filed in September 2021. The lawsuit is still pending and the city denied the allegations.
• The council is also expected to appoint a member to the Board of Directors of Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District. The only applicant is a current member of the board, Sandy Chavez.
Closed session planned
The agenda notes that the council will confer in closed session with the city manager and public works director to provide direction for water rights negotiation with the firm Comprehend and Copy Nature, LLC, and also confer with legal counsel regarding existing litigation between the city and Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District.
The water district filed a lawsuit against the city in September 2021 challenging approval of Sage Ranch and other residential developments, including one at Tucker and Highline roads known as The Address at Tehachapi.
The company developing The Address at Tehachapi was Comprehend and Copy Nature, LLC, based in Orange County.
But the proposed residential development has not proceeded and at the Jan. 9 meeting of the Tehachapi Planning Commission, Development Services Director Jay Schlosser said the applicant had formally withdrawn its plan for the 232 home project.
The water district’s annual watermaster report for 2021 showed that Comprehend and Copy Nature, LLC, owned 88 acre feet of water rights in the Tehachapi Basin. Of those rights, 18 acre feet were previously acquired from the Frank C. Mendez Sr Living Trust and 70 acre feet were previously acquired from Jeffrey and Heidi Ciachurski.
Jeff Ciachurski is Chief Executive Officer of Greenbriar Capital (U.S.), LLC, the developer of Sage Ranch. The same water district report showed that Ciachurski owned 114 acre feet of water rights but in September he transferred 76 acre feet of water rights to Greenbriar. The company is required to provide water rights to the city before it can proceed with development.
According to the 2021 watermaster report, there are 8,020 acre feet of base water rights in the Tehachapi Basin. At the end of 2021, the city owned 2,770 acre feet of those rights. The city has been actively working to acquire additional rights and purchased rights from various parties last year.
Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: claudia@claudiaelliott.net.
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