DESERT NEWS STAFF REPORT, Mojave Desert News
CalCity council, planners chart city’s future
BY DEBBY BADILLO
CALIFORNIA
CITY — The latest version of the city’s blueprint for its future is almost
ready for a final approval from the City Council, but it will likely
be the post-election council that will take that step. In the meantime,
city staff is going to incorporate changes and additions to the General
Plan update agreed on by the City Council and the Planning Commission at
a special joint session held Aug. 24, and work on solutions to issues
that failed to garner a consensus.
The General Plan, once it’s approved, will be a 20-year document, guiding
the city’s development until 2024, City Manager Jack Stewart said. The
update is necessary to reflect a smaller population growth than first projected
in the 1992 General Plan update. The housing element, approved in March,
will be
incorporated into the final draft of the updated General Plan.
Road plans
The council and planning commission reached a consensus on a
number of points, beginning with a circulation plan that described road
expansions throughout the city, future annexation plans, and plans for
expanding the city’s sphere of influence. The city’s frontage roads will
be retained as buffer zones between homes and traffic. Still to be resolved
is whether California City Boulevard from Yerba Boulevard and Highway 14
should be zoned for commercial use only, or zoned to allow a mix of commercial
and industrial businesses. Along with that, the city needs to decide how
to provide access to the boulevard from the large, 2 1/2 acre parcels on
the north and south sides of the boulevard when it’s expanded to four-lanes.
Homeland Security
Stewart said the city is working with Congressman Bill Thomas’s
office to secure federal funding to develop an access route from Edwards
Air Force Base to China Lake Naval Weapons Center by taking sensitive traffic
from the north gate interchange at Edwards AFB to 140th Street, which would
be paved, to California City Boulevard South and then north along 20 Mule
Team Parkway to Highway 395 and Ridgecrest. This proposed route would take
sensitive traffic from one base to the other while avoiding public areas
like Kramer Junction and the railroad tracks.
Sphere of influence, annexation
When the city annexed 29 square miles on its southern boundary,
it added about six miles of Highway 58 to the sphere of influence, Stewart
said, so the city can be considered adjacent to Edwards AFB. The city will
likely expand its sphere of influence to the west side of Highway 14, where
it passes between the southwest corner of the city and the northern boundary
of the Mojave Airport. Although the Mojave Public Utility District has
included that stretch of Highway 14 in its own sphere of influence, the
law allows entities to share, or overlap, boundaries, Stewart said.
New interchange
Part of the plan is to persuade Caltrans to restore an interchange
on Highway 14 that would provide access to both the Mojave Airport and
the Union Pacific railroad line where it passes through city limits. This
could expand the city’s industrial development, the city manager said.
Also in the future, the city will likely annex more land to the south,
to include the north gate interchange on Highway 58 and the land between.
“The idea,” Stewart said, “is to bring development south to 58 where (the
Antelope Valley East Kern Water District) has water lines.
Boulevard improvements
The city has committed to widening California City Boulevard
to four lanes from Baron Boulevard to Highway 14 within five years of the
completion of the intersection of the boulevard and the highway. Stewart
said funding for the intersection is included in Caltrans’s 2006-07 budget.
(See separate story,
this issue) Also, the city plans to upgrade Mendiburu and Neuralia
roads as access roads through the city. Redwood Boulevard will also likely
become another major throughway as traffic on California City Boulevard
increases.
Public works
The public works department has developed a 10-year project to
replace the city’s obsolete water lines, extend new water lines to Wonder
Acres, and add a 2.5 million gallon storage tank at the west side
of town. The US Department of Agriculture Rural Development program will
fund the multi-phase project, beginning with a $5 million phase one package
of loans and grants to replace water lines in a northeast corner of the
city with the most leaks. The USDA has agreed to act as the lead agency
for the city, so the city will save time and money by developing a single
environmental impact report to cover plans for storm drain improvements,
sewer and water expansion, and railroad access. Sewer expansion is a priority
because the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has urged the
city to limit the number of septic systems it allows to be built. Two-thirds
of the city’s households are on septic systems, and the city is requiring
new developments to connect to the sewer system, along with anyone within
200 feet of a sewer line.
Public safety
As more people move in, the city will likely need to add police
and fire stations, although these are longterm, costly goals. Fire Chief
Mike Antonucci said a combined police and fire station would be needed
in the second community, along with fire stations for Wonder Acres and
the north gate annexation area. Stewart said new development along these
corridors will help pay for the substations.
Aspen Mall
The city will partner with the national Main Street program to
redesign the Aspen Mall with fresh landscaping, new facades, and improved
courtyards and alleyways to attract new businesses. The Tehachapi Main
Street program has agreed to help the city develop the plan. Mayor Larry
Adams said residents and business owners need to stop holding car washes
at the mall because there’s no drainage, and the water is ruining the parking
lot. Both Mayor Adams and Stewart said they appreciated the current Planning
Commission’s positive attitude when discussing the projects and challenges
ahead.
“It’s a good thing to have a planning commission that takes its
job seriously,” Adams said.
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