Voice Your Concerns

For those who observe with the Los Angeles Astronomical Association at their dark sky site in Lockwood Valley or at nearby Mt Pinos, it should be apparent from the link in this post that the imminent approval of "Centennial City" will pose a serious threat of light pollution, traffic congestion and significant demands on public resources required to support a massive development of 23000 new homes in the area.
From the link, the developer, Tejon land management, states they have "tremendous support from the people" of the residents of the Gorman area. For those who are not familiar with Gorman, it has about 15 homes and about 12 registered voters.
It should be obvious to those familiar with the area that such a massive development will wreck havoc on the rural nature of the region. 23000 homes in an area that was never intended to support a "mini-city" will require substantial water supplies and public resources such as schools, police departments, fire stations and emergency services. Jobs will be a very difficult prospect to create if the experiences of many of the current residents of nearby pine mountain club and Frazier Park are of any indication. Many of these people have to commute at least an hour if not more to work in Santa Clarita and there appears to be little indication that the jobs supposedly created with this development will be high paying ones.
Interstate 5, the main freeway serving Gorman, Lebec, and the Frazier Park area is subject to closure during the winter months from heavy snowfall and truck commerce between southern and northern California stops when the freeway is blocked. You can only imagine what the addition of 23000 homes will do during these critical periods.
I ask all who are interested to write to the Los Angeles county planning commission and voice their concerns about this proposed development before it is too late...
http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/48985/

Gorman?!! You've got to be kidding. Nobody in their right mind is going to want to own a real house in that hell-hole. Sounds like another SoCal developer smoking dope and looking for a fast buck at others' expense. It would at least make sense to move it down the hill to Grapevine, where they can build houses away from the never ending truck noise and winter snow hazards on I-5.

I left Southern California in 1977 and never looked back. I dunno why anyone would want to live there any more.

Not sure whether it can be stopped now, they did get permits for the building of the community. If there are any other permits pending, I am not aware of them.

The only hope is they have a hard time getting financing for this project, would seem to me that banks would not be waiting to give them money for building homes with the housing market like it is?

I live in Fresno, but I know SoCal pretty well due to family and business (civil engineering) connections. I also lived in Ventura from 1981 to 1986. Building anything around Gorman is absurd.

What is the status of the EIR? How are they going to overcome the obvious difficulties with traffic congestion on I-5? Do they have a sustainable water supply, etc? The project will certainly have a number of significant environmental impacts. It seems to me that almost every project like this comes up with mitigation measures that satisfy the lead agency (thus getting the EIR certified), but it seems awfully difficult here. However, developers are well connected and amateur astronomers are usually not, which doesn't bode well.

Unfortunately, light pollution usually rates low on the radar screen of government officials, so it takes a lot of effort to "raise their conscienceness." You may want to get ahold of Tuscon's light ordinance that was developed to minimize light impact for Kitt Peak and see if that can be imposed on the development in case it proceeds to completion.