Tehachapi City Council Update

On Monday, July 17, the Tehachapi City Council appointed three people to the Planning Commission. Daryl Christensen and Charles White were reappointed as their terms expired on June 30. New to the commission is Kenneth Wright. Wright is a crew foreman for Kern County Fire where he has worked for 18 years maintaining helicopters for the department. His first meeting will be a Special Meeting held on July 24. Councilman Kenneth Hetge questioned whether a Planning Commission was a viable entity. Development Services Director Jay Schlosser explained that the Planning Commission deals with the details of zoning codes and variance requests and other construction details. Without the review of the Commission, all of that responsibility would then fall on the City Council. Hetge asked City Attorney Thomas Schroeter if all of the cities he represents have planning commissions. Schroeter responded that they indeed did.

The Council also approved an agreement between the City and Wal-Mart Stores for the construction of roadway medians and signals on Tucker Rd. and Tehachapi Blvd. Wal-Mart has agreed to pay all of the costs up front; however, in the area between Valley Blvd. and Conway Ave. the City will reimburse Wal-Mart for those costs. Should the property on the west side of Tucker be developed within the next ten years, Wal-Mart can ask for a partial reimbursement from that developer. Currently signals are planned for the north driveway into Albertson’s, for the main entrance to Wal-Mart on Tucker Rd, and on Tehachapi Blvd. between Tucker Rd and Old Tucker Rd. Wal-Mart will also pay the City $377,000 for 20 years of water rights up front. According to the City’s calculations, this far exceeds Wal-Mart’s expected use.

A big disappointment of the meeting was the withdrawal of the proposed Verizon Wireless cell phone tower to be placed on the Rock Pile by the airport. Verizon had approached the City to negotiate an agreement. Although they do not own the Rock Pile, the FAA sent notification to the city that they wanted to review the agreement before signing. As this would result in months of red tape, it was decided to remove the item and project from consideration.

The Council voted 3 to 1 to award Griffith Company the contract for completing an 8 foot wide, two-way bikeway on the north side of Tehachapi Blvd. between Hayes and Steuber Rd. The funds for the project will partially come from the 2014 grant award from the Transportation Development Act (TDA) with the balance to come from left over funds from the Redevelopment Agency bond fund. No money is expected to come from the General Fund and the item was included in this year’s budget. Charles White, speaking for the Tehachapi TOURISM COMMISSION pointed out that Tehachapi was becoming a cycling mecca, bringing cyclists from all over California. He added that the bikeway could also make hiking that section of Tehachapi Blvd. easier and safer for the Pacific Crest Trail hikers who walk into town. Kenneth Wright pointed out how many low income employees work in the area and felt that the bikeway would make getting to work safer for many of them. The one dissenting vote was Councilman Kenneth Hetge.