Tres Hermanos Ranch Joint Partnership Agreement Reached

As reported in today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune, an agreement has been reached between the cities of Chino Hills, Diamond Bar and Industry in which the former two cities, by jointly paying a little above $4 million (Chino Hills kicking in almost $3 million and Diamond Bar the remainder) with Industry providing $37.5 million, will share ownership of the 2,500-acre Tres Hermanos Ranch, situated in Tonner Canyon just north of Carbon Canyon.

The arrangement brings to an end a protracted legal battle between the Tres Ciudades over the fate and future of one of the last remaining large tracts of undeveloped land in the region.  The ranch, created by William Benjamin Scott, an oilman; William R. Rowland, son of the original grantee of nearby Rancho La Puente and a Los Angeles County Sheriff and oilman; and Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, was sold to the City of Industry in 1978 by a Chandler family company.

Ideas for a massive reservoir and a huge solar farm, the latter more recently proposed, have been discussed over the years, but, after signing a deal with a firm to work on the solar farm, which brought litigation from Chino Hills and Diamond Bar, Industry terminated the agreement.  The solar farm proponents are not giving up, however, and have now threatened all three municipalities with lawsuits.

The Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority, which existed for years but met irregularly, will be revived, wll be granted ownership of the ranch, and there will be seven seats on the administrative body.  Three will be appointed by Industry and two each by the other cities.  After Industry formally approves the sale tomorrow, the Authority is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Thursday.  Any approved uses of the ranch will need at least one vote from a member whose city is in the area where the project would be built and two votes from Industry.  If the latter was to leave the Authority, the other two cities would have the option of acquiring their portions of the land—about 700 acres is in Diamond Bar and the rest in Chino Hills.

Much of Tres Hermanos Ranch looking southwest from Diamond Bar, March 2018.

Mayor Carol Herrera of Diamond Bar heralded the agreement as "an incredible opportunity . . . to ensure it remains a valuable open space resource in our cities and region for decades to come."  This refers to a provision in a deed restriction that the ranch is to be dedicated only towards "open space, public use or preservation" and the agreement now stipulates that there are "no proposed new uses, new improvements, or major alterations contemplated on Tres Hermanos for the foreseeable future."  It was also agreed that the three cities would share the cost of maintaining the property.

Industry City Manager Troy Helling called the deal a "reset," observing that "this is one way of showing that we're here to be good neighbors" because Chino Hills and Diamond Bar "have a right to say what happens to" Tres Hermanos because the ranch is in their domains.  The City's mayor Mark Radecki stated that

the value is in what the land means to the people of this region, to the wildlife that use it as a corridor, and in what our communities can accomplish together to protect the special environment that has been preserved.

Notably, the kickstart to the reset came from outgoing Chino Hills City Manager Rad Bartlam's suggestion that he and Helling have lunch so that a partnership, not the continuation of adversarial relationships, could be pursued.  Bartlam added that the intent is to maintain as much of the existing open space as possible and that "there is a possibility of opening the land to the public."  There would have to be some mitigation done, including what to do with Arnold Reservoir, a body of water visible just south of Grand Avenue, which bisects the ranch.  Bartlam was quoted as saying that "all the focus is, for the most part, on protecting Tres Hermanos."

Despite the fact that Industy's lease with the solar farm's developer, San Gabriel Valley Water and Power, ended at the end of 2018, that company has pursued a deal that would have the City of Commerce try to buy Tres Hermanos from the successor agency of the former City of Industry redevelopment agency, the Urban Development Agency.

William Barkett, a lead figure at the solar farm firm, indicated that the company would "seek relief for all money amounts and other benefits that would have flowed to" his company if Industry had followed through with the previous arrangement and that all three cities would be targeted.  Bartlam responded that this was expected, but did not deter the municipalities from following through to make the deal and establish the newly constituted Authority.

Stay tuned for future developments!