Readers React: Is the Centennial project on Tejon Ranch another Paradise waiting to happen?
To the editor: The editorial on the debate over rebuilding Paradise, Calif., amid the increasing threat of wildfires raises the question: How did the Los Angeles County Planning Commission last August advance the 19,000-home Centennial development on fire-prone Tejon Ranch in the far northeast corner of the county?
Did it miss the Ventura and Sonoma County fires torching entire neighborhoods last year? Did it not get the memo that fossil-fueled cars belching greenhouse gases are one of the biggest drivers of climate change?
As an urban planner and environmental analyst working on retrofitting Southern California into a climate-adapted, multi-modal transportation connected, wilderness-rich metropolitan area, I feel that projects like Centennial will become literal flash points in the fast-moving environmental tragedy happening all around us.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors can send Tejon Ranch back to the drawing board and recognize that building suburbs in the wilderness is a recipe for destruction.
Jack Eidt, Los Angeles
The writer is co-founder of the advocacy group Wild Heritage Planners.
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