Can sustainable suburbs save southern California?
The [Tejon Ranch] company’s proposals promise a reprieve from California’s existential crisis about its way of life, suggesting that the environmental consequences of the state’s notorious sprawl can be reformed with rooftop solar panels, induction cooktops, electric cars, and careful bookkeeping. … During the years of litigation surrounding FivePoint Valencia, environmentalists scored a few rare wins. The development had to reduce its footprint to protect the Santa Clara River’s floodplain. It had to conserve land to protect the unarmored threespine stickleback—an endangered fish that lives in the river—and the San Fernando Valley spineflower, a rare plant.