LANCASTER — Antelope Valley Community College District administrators and board members will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 13 for the Commons, the final project under Measure AV, the $350 million bond measure passed by local voters in November 2016.

In 2024, the City of Lancaster received its fourth Eddy Award for Most Business-Friendly City in L.A. County from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, making us the first and only city to earn this prestigious honor four times (also in 2007, 2013, and 2019). This achievement underscores Lancaster’s dedication to creating a business-friendly environment through innovative initiatives and sustainable practices.

Our commitment to local business development is further exemplified by the International Economic Development Council’s recognition of Lancaster’s achievements, with the Shop Local Program honored in 2024 for promoting the growth of locally owned small businesses. Additionally, in 2021, Lancaster received an Award in Excellence from the IEDC for our Stand Strong program. In addition to these honors, Lancaster became the world’s first Net Zero City in 2019, and by 2022, we were the first city in North America to operate a fully Net Zero transit fleet.

LANCASTER — The Lancaster Planning Commission on Monday will consider a proposed general plan amendment and zone change recommendation for an approximately 2.5-acre parcel of land at the southwest corner of Avenue L and 15th Street West and conditional use permit to allow for the construction of a proposed Maverik fueling station and convenience market with alcohol sales.

City of Palmdale is rapidly growing. With this growth in mind, the city has mapped out where they are developing residential dwellings to match the influx in population. This map shows not only the projects under development, but where the future projects are projected to be.

Two office buildings totaling 3,001,712 SF being built in Palmdale. Completion of project expected summer of 2025.

LANCASTER — The Lancaster Planning Commission approved a tentative tract map to subdivide about 20 acres at the southeast corner of Avenue L and 70th Street West into 56 single-family residential lots.

PALMDALE — The Planning Commission gave the initial go-ahead for two new single-family home developments by approving tentative tract maps subdividing the properties during its regular meeting Thursday. The first development approved is on the northwest corner of Avenue R and 40th Street East. The commission approved the tract map that subdivides the 8.5 acre parcel into 31 lots, with 30 lots for single-family homes and one for a retention basin, as described by Contract Planner Chantal Power. The site is adjacent existing single-family home neighborhoods on the north and west, and across the street from such a neighborhood to the east. Across Avenue R to the south is the Palmdale Academy Charter School.

PALMDALE — When the expected high speed rail line between Palmdale and the Victor Valley comes to fruition along the High Desert Corridor, it will be built, operated and maintained by union labor. Representatives of the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Authority and various trade unions ceremoniously signed the workforce agreements for the project Monday at the Palmdale Transportation Center, which will become the site of the future rail station.

In what is arguably the biggest milestone in the mission to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco by bullet train, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is expected to submit final plans to obtain complete environmental approval between the two cities. On Friday, the Authority announced it would submit its final environmental impact report for the segment connecting Palmdale to Burbank, which is the last section yet to achieve environmental clearance.

LANCASTER — The Lancaster Planning Commission approved a tentative tract map for a proposed subdivision of approximately 20.5 acres into 32 single-family lots at the northwest corner of 35th Street West and Avenue M-8 in the semi-rural residential zone.

PALMDALE — A new warehouse on Technology Drive was given the go-ahead by the Palmdale Planning Commission last week. The nearly 282,000 square-foot facility will be on 12.74 acres on the north side of Technology Drive, between Trade Center Drive and Fifth Street West, across the street from the existing Amazon warehouse.

Brightline West has chosen the company to build and deliver new high-speed trainsets to be deployed on its bullet train system between Southern California and Las Vegas.

The trains will be built by Siemens Mobility, a German manufacturing company that has been building trains in Northern California since the 1980s and has a U.S. headquarters in Sacramento. Siemens has already partnered with Brightline in the past, having built the diesel-electric trains used for the company’s East Coast operation that connects Miami to Orlando, Florida. Brightline will be acquiring ten “American Pioneer 220” trains that it says will be delivered to Nevada in time for the service to begin operating in 2028. The AP220 is a zero-emission, fully electric train that is capable of reaching speeds of 220 mph, although those speeds won’t be reached when service begins. The trains are expected to be set up in a 7-car configuration with a capacity of more than 430 passengers, depending on final design, Brightline says.

Federal, transportation and union leaders gathered in Las Vegas Monday to drive spikes into a symbolic rail, marking the beginning of construction for a $12 billion high-speed rail line that will link Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.

“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony. “It’s really happening this time.”

Brightline West, the only private passenger rail company operating high-speed service in the country, is expected to build a 218-mile intercity passenger rail system between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., where it would connect with Los Angeles’s existing regional rail system.

Buttigieg on Monday touted the Biden administration’s support for the project, noting it will bring thousands of union jobs and help local economies, The Associated Press reported. The project is estimated to cost about $12 billion — $3 billion of which the Biden administration greenlighted last year.

The trip is expected to take slightly longer than two hours, with trains traveling as fast as 180 mph. This will be nearly twice as fast as driving.

Advocates for the project hope the rail line will lessen transportation costs and reduce traffic and emissions. An estimated 16 million people drive from Las Vegas toward Southern California on Interstate 15 every year through the Mojave Desert.

Brightline estimated the project could slash 3 million car trips every year. The company is hoping construction will be done in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

LANCASTER — The Lancaster Planning Commission approved a tentative tract map to subdivide approximately 18.5 acres at the northwest corner of Avenue K and 40th Street West into 68 lots — 67 single-family residential lots and one common area lot.

California’s most ambitious public works program has created thousands of new labor jobs, according to a status update from the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The bullet train project which aims to connect the Bay Area with the Los Angeles Basin has created 13,000 labor jobs since construction began in 2015, the vast majority of which have come in the last five years.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced Wednesday she has given $500,000 from Fifth District discretionary funding to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) to advance planning and project development activities for the proposed Center for Transportation Technology Excellence project. The center would be the first of its kind in the United States, a 2-million square foot facility for rail car and bus manufacturing, testing, research and development. The center also has the potential to generate $11.5 billion in economic returns and over 114,300 direct and indirect jobs, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

LANCASTER — The Lancaster Planning Commission approved a tentative tract map for a proposed subdivision of 73 single family residential lots on about 20 acres at the northwest corner of Avenue K and 65th Street West.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the approval Tuesday of $2.5 billion in private activity bonds allocated toward the Brightline West high-speed rail project connecting Southern California to Las Vegas. The new funding follows an award of $1 billion in private activity bonds to Brightline West in 2020 and a $3 billion federal grant announced in December.

LANCASTER — A proposed 630,000 square-foot BYD electric school bus manufacturing facility took another step toward reality last month when the City Council unanimously approved a General Plan amendment to change the land use designation.