Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Development Nears Final Approval

City Ranch, a planned 5,200-unit Kaufman and Broad Home Corp. community west of Palmdale, is one step away from final approval after a county panel voted Wednesday to annex the 1,985-acre area into the city.

The 5-0 decision by the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission paves the way for a final annexation vote on the project June 10 by the Palmdale City Council. If built, the community would be one of the largest developed in the Antelope Valley.

The City Ranch property, now unincorporated, is south of Elizabeth Lake Road between 20th and 40th Streets West. That project, with the already approved 7,200-unit Ritter Ranch project on its western boundary, promises to transform the area into a city within a city.

Kaufman and Broad, California’s largest single-family home builder, plans to develop City Ranch over two decades. In March, the City Council approved an agreement locking in the builder’s development rights for the next 20 to 25 years.

In exchange, the developer agreed to pay $2.9 million toward construction of a new City Hall; build and equip a city maintenance yard; provide a fire station with emergency vehicles; and develop an 18-hole golf course to be reserved at least 25% of the time for public use.