Demands extremist groups remove knowingly
false, inaccurate and misleading material and video from
websites
Tejon Ranch Co. demands that the California Native Plant Society
(CNPS) remove material, including a video, from an anti-Centennial
website which Tejon Ranch believes contains recklessly, if not
knowingly false, inaccurate and misleading material. California
Native Plant Society has partnered with the Tucson, Arizona-based
Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a longtime litigant against
Tejon Ranch projects, in opposition to Centennial and this latest
action to mischaracterize Centennial is true to form for both
groups.
"90% of Tejon Ranch—240,000 acres—will be permanently conserved.
Amazingly, that is not enough for some extremist groups,” said
Michael R.W. Houston, Tejon Ranch Co.’s General Counsel. “We call
upon them to cease and desist their campaign of presenting false,
inaccurate and misleading statements to the public in an effort to
undermine Los Angeles County’s recent approval of Centennial, as
well as their efforts to damage the overall Tejon Ranch
Conservation and Land Use Agreement, which is supported by major
respected conservation groups like Audubon California, the Natural
Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats
League, and others.”
The video falsely accuses shareholders of Tejon Ranch Co. of
engaging in unlawful activity. Here is a portion of the text from
the video:
The Tejon Ranch Corporation is a Wall Street
traded company owned primarily by a large group of Hedge Fund
looters
The video summary claims the building of Centennial would
destroy 6,000 acres of wildflower habitat, leaving the impression
that all the landscapes shown in the video are from the Centennial
site. This is not accurate.
California Native Plant
SocietyPublished on May 1, 2019
Photographer Richard Dickey captures the
magnificent beauty of Tejon Ranch, where LA County has just
approved a new city of 55,000. More than 6,000 acres of wildflower
habitat will be destroyed.
In fact, most of the landscapes shown in the video are not
from, or do not show the Centennial planning area, and a
significant percentage of the land depicted in the video is not
even part of Tejon Ranch.
Given that the author of the web-article in which the video
appears claims to have spent over “200 days on Tejon Ranch”, and
the photographer/producer of the video claims to have spent 30
years photographing the area, it is appalling that both the author
and video producer would so recklessly insinuate, if not blatantly
assert, that the land shown is located either on Tejon or in the
Centennial project area – when much of it is not.
Depicting locations that are either not on Tejon Ranch or not
located in the Centennial project, while representing such sites
are located in those locales, is false, severely misleading and
fraudulent. This sort of deceptive activity is consistent
with CBD’s past practices.
CBD used a similar tactic against Arizona rancher Jim Chilton
when it posted knowingly false and misleading pictures of his
ranching lease on its website back in 2002. Chilton successfully
sued for defamation and was awarded $600,000 by a jury, which
included punitive damages. The case shows the lengths CBD will go
to in pursuit of its radical agenda. They clearly do not feel
constrained by the truth, even asserting to the Arizona appellate
court in Mr. Chilton’s case that they had a First Amendment right
to lie, an argument the court rightfully rejected as it affirmed
the jury’s verdict and damage award.
In addition to having a history of using false and misleading
information to damage those they oppose, CBD appears to spend most
of its time and its substantial resources on litigation, all
designed, in the words of CBD co-founder Kieran Suckling, ”to
create severe economic pain.“ CBD has consistently and continually
sued proposed housing developments in California, which does
nothing to help, and actually exacerbates the housing crisis in
California. Given its agenda to oppose, delay and obstruct, it’s
clear that the “economic pain” CBD wants to inflict is being felt
by young and middle-class Californians who find decent housing to
be unavailable and unaffordable.
Approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on April
30, 2019, Centennial addresses the serious need to provide
additional housing that’s within reach of middle-class families in
Southern California. Centennial also creates a new job center for
Los Angeles County as it gives companies the opportunity to locate
in an area where their employees could afford to live. Centennial
is expected to create 23,000 permanent jobs on site and nearly
25,000 construction jobs, with at least 30% of those jobs going to
local residents. Centennial will offer price attainable homes and
18% of the housing units will be officially designated affordable
units. With Governor Newsom proposing to build more than 400,000
homes a year, Centennial can be part of the solution to the housing
crisis in California. All while still conserving 90% of Tejon
Ranch.
CBD has initiated seven different legal challenges against Tejon
Ranch over the last 16 years in both state and federal court. It
should therefore come as no surprise that its representatives
recently promised to sue Los Angeles County over its approval of
Centennial. Given that CBD sued and lost, both at the superior and
appellate court level, when it challenged Los Angeles County over
its approval of the Antelope Valley Area Plan-- which designated
the site where Centennial is located for future development, it
would be simply rehashing issues on which it’s already sued and
lost. It’s no wonder CBD has been called nothing more than a
lawsuit-factory, spending much of its time and resources either in
court or issuing press releases, rather than engaging in proactive
conservation.
CBD had the opportunity to engage in proactive conservation on
Tejon Ranch. It was initially involved in negotiations, along with
respected environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club,
Natural Resources Defense Council, Audubon California, Endangered
Habitats League, and others, that led to the historic and
science-based Tejon Ranch Conservation and Land Use Agreement, in
which 90% of Tejon Ranch will be conserved. This agreement was
supported by two previous Governors’ Administrations, and because
of this agreement, Tejon Ranch can play a vital role in the
building of residential units to help meet Governor Newsom’s
housing goals for California, all while conserving 240,000 acres in
perpetuity.
Even though published reports indicate it was CBD
representatives themselves who advocated for and demanded the 90/10
ratio of conservation to development, the organization walked away
from the negotiations just months before an agreement was reached.
CBD is recently quoted in a different publication saying it
preferred to retain the right to sue (and presumably collect
attorneys fees) than compromise, even if that compromise would
result in a guaranteed positive conservation outcome.
If it does sue—again—over Centennial, it’s likely to
hypocritically raise the issue of wildfires, as it did in a
recently-filed lawsuit against another housing development in Los
Angeles County. In another instance of what clearly appears to be
CBD taking whatever position best suits them, even if it’s
contradictory to other positions it’s taken, CBD opposed Governor
Newsom’s emergency declaration streamlining 35 wildfire mitigation
projects that would help protect 2.2 million Californians in over
200 communities from future wildfires, claiming it would undercut
environmental protections. In that instance, CBD said the best
measure to protect homes against wildfire wouldn’t be to thin
forests and remove dead and dying brush from nearby at-risk
communities, but to retrofit houses to current building standards
and create defensible space around them, something that clearly
could not be accomplished before the next wildfire season.
But the prescription that CBD claims is the best defense against
wildfire is exactly what the plan for Centennial requires. Though,
at Centennial, instead of needing to retrofit homes, houses and
other buildings will be constructed from the very beginning based
on the most stringent fire codes and building standards in place at
the time. These plans have been reviewed and approved by all
appropriate State and County Fire authorities. The defensible space
standards at Centennial also far exceed state requirements.
Tejon Ranch Co. calls upon CBD and CNPS to cease their false and
misleading campaign against Centennial, to support the Ranchwide
Agreement that permanently conserves 90% of Tejon Ranch, to respect
the overwhelming community and state support it received, and to
recognize the deleterious impact of their positions on the urgent
need to produce more housing for thousands of families in
California.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190516006078/en/
Barry Zoeller, Vice President, Corporate Communications &
Investor Relations(661) 663-4212bzoeller@tejonranch.com
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