Planning Commission approves new 18 home development

Provided by the City of Tehachapi.

An aerial photograph of tract 6668, where K Hovnanian will be building 18 new homes.

On March 8, the Tehachapi City Planning Commission held their regular monthly board meeting at which they brought to vote a special development request by K Hovnanian Homes, who is set to purchase and develop an 18-lot land parcel by Pinon and Fig streets.

K Hovnanian Homes intends to build 18 more houses in the same style as their 52-lot development in Tehachapi Hills that are about 90% complete.

Due to a rezoning on the land back in 2014, K Hovnanian requires special variances that must be approved by the City Planning Commission before they are allowed to develop. The board agreed that K Hovnanian's first 52-home tract was turning into a nice looking, well-built neighborhood. The new 18-lot tract would use the same architecture, which was already approved by the city. Ultimately the variances needed were small, but had to be approved, and it was an unanimous pass by the board. Currently there is no projected timeline for the development of the new lots.

In addition to the K Hovnanian request, Development Services Director Jay Schlosser gave updates on several community developments, including one about Sage Ranch, which is deep in the engineering and design phase and not yet paused or stopped by the ongoing lawsuit between the City of Tehachapi and Tehachapi Cummings County Water District. The court decision date is May 3, and the project will continue as planned until the matter is settled by the court.

Schlosser was also happy to report that there has been substantial interest in the Hitching Post Theater building, with several passionate and experienced parties hoping to reopen it as a small town movie theater the community so desperately wants and misses.

The Tehachapi Planning Commission meets on the second Monday of the month at 6 p.m. at the Tehachapi Police Department Community Room located at 220 W. C St.